The Holiday Series
by IlovetowriteSMP
Summary: Short stories. GH.
1. Valentines Day Series Starts

**THE HOLIDAY SERIES**

This series of stories are about how certain Port Charles residents spend the holidays. The first seventeen stories are interconnected Valentine tales and the ones after that are stand alone Christmas stories.


	2. 2008 Jason and Carly

**JASON AND CARLY- 2008 **( all medical stuff is just made up by me)

He sat by her bedside in the hospital. This is where he had been everyday for one month now. She liked to see him the moment she woke up, and he liked to please her.

It was about the only thing he could give her now.

Soon Robin might find the right drug combination... or she might not. But Jason choose to believe she would. It made getting up in the morning easier.

Jason watched Carly with tears in his eyes. Silently, he said, _Come back to me, baby. Come on, don't forget about me._

She started to moan, moved her head, and with her eyes closed, whispered "Jason."

(_If there were no words  
No way to speak_

_  
I would still hear you_

_  
If there were no tears  
No way to feel inside_

_  
I'd still feel for you_) 

Carly's eyes fluttered open. "Hey, Jase, what are you doing here?" she asked sleepily. "Where am I?"

He took her hand and said, as he did every time she woke up, "The hospital. There was an accident. But you're going to be just fine."

"Oh, good."

Jason's heart clutched at her unending and unshakeable trust in him.

"What day is it? Have I been unconscious long?" Carly asked

"Not too long." He had learned that simple answers worked best. Explaining everything made her cry and freak out and ruined the little time she had before she fell asleep again.

"What happened to me?"

"It doesn't matter. The doctors are working on fixing you up and once they do you can come home. I was thinking you should move in with me..." he had been thinking, actually, of never letting her out of his sight again once she was well enough to be released.

Carly smiled, "Oh, really? Since when do you want me as a roommate? I seem to remember suggesting that _same idea _about a year ago when Sam moved out and you said you liked living alone."

"It's too quiet these days."

"Well the boys and I could certainly made it loud in a hurry." She slowly sat up. "I feel okay. What kind of accident did you say I was in?"

"You have a head injury," he hated having to repeat the details of the story day after day. But the part of her brain that controlled short term memory was damaged now and as soon as she fell asleep the facts disappeared. She could remember the past perfectly, though, every moment before the accident.

And that was a blessing, he felt. Because that meant she still loved him. She loved him in her unique Carly way, a way he couldn't live without. A way that made _him_, and how he wasmake sense when the rest of the world said he was too cold, too heartless, unemotional and cut off from how real people feel. Carly never once saw any of that though, and so now, neither did he.

"I feel fine," she insisted.

"Good. Do you know what day it is?"

She tried to figure it out but her eyes stayed blank.

Jason told her, "It's Valentine's Day, Car."

"Aww, really? Well Happy Valentine's Day, Jase."

"You, too." He stood up and sat on the edge of the bed. Carly opened her arms and hugged him, sighing happily. He turned his face and kissed her cheek and then, ever so slowly, moved to her lips.

Every day now they had a first kiss. Well, first in a long time. According to what Carly could remember.

"You kissed me," she said, as if he didn't know.

"Yeah, I did."

"This head injury isn't going to kill me, is it Jase? That isn't what made you do that? Tell me I'm wrong."

"You're wrong."

"So...do I have amnesia?" she smiled "Are you and I married now? That would be a great Valentine's Day present."

Jason held her eyes for a long moment. He could tell her yes and she would be happy for a few minutes. When she woke up she wouldn't remember what he said. But to lie to her wasn't an option.

"We aren't married, Carly."

"Oh."

Utter disappointed clouded her features.

"But," Jason leaned close to her ear and whispered. "I do love you like nobody's business."

She sniffled. "You do?"

"Of course, you didn't forget that did you?"

"No, never." She kissed him and clung to him like he was her lifesaver. And Jason knew that is how she thought of him.

Carly was waiting on him to save her, even if she didn't know it.

And, one way or the other, Jason planned to do that for her. He needed her to be whole again. So he could tell her what a fool he had been for turning her away so many times in the past, and how he would never be foolish again.

(_And even if the sun refused to shine  
Even if romance ran out of rhyme_

_  
You would still have my heart until the end of time  
You're all I need, my love, _

_my Valentine_)

Next up: Milu


	3. 2008 Milo and Lulu

**MILO AND LULU - 2008**

She was sitting in the middle of Psychology 101 when she reached into her backpack to grab her book and found the card from her boyfriend.

Milo had written inside:

_It's our first Valentine's Day together, my sweet girl. Meet me at my place after work tonight. Surprises await._

She stifled her squeal.

Lulu loved surprises. Especially the kind Milo came up with, like hot air balloon rides and spur of the moment road trips to Canada and making love under the stars by a stream, hidden behind a grove of trees at exactly midnight on the first day of Spring.

His surprises, like his love, was the stuff, that for her, memories were made out of.

**THAT NIGHT**, she used her key to open his apartment door. He stood in the middle of the room, dressed in a suit minus the jacket. His shirt had the top button undone. His hair was tousled in the style Lulu liked best, the one where she could run her hands through it and it looked just as good after ward.

Candles were everywhere.

Their eyes met. "Hey, baby " he said.

"Hey to you."

(_All of my life  
I have been waiting for  
all you give to me_

_  
You've opened my eyes  
and showed me how to love unselfishly_)

Milo motioned her over to him and took her in his arms. They started to dance around the room as a CD of Lulu's favorite love songs played.

"You do know this is my first decent Valentine's Day, don't you?" she asked him.

He had figured as much. She told him often how many firsts he gave her, and how much they all meant to her. It made Milo want to do everything perfect so her memories would be unmarred by any more pain or loss. He wanted her to only smile when she thought of him.

"The first of many, I hope, Lulu."

She smiled. It amazed her how he could make her believe in happy ever after. He had her thinking they would beat the odds. In fact, she counted on it. Because losing his love might break her in a way that she couldn't recover from. But Lulu never spent much time thinking of that. Because he swore to always love her. And she believed every word he said.

**Later, after he fed **her lasagna he made using his mother's recipe, they curled up on the couch together.

Lulu said, "So...?"

"So." he repeated , though he knew from the way her eyes sparkled what she wanted. "Oh yeah, I guess I did say something about a surprise, didn't I?"

"Yes! Come on, I've been patient. Spill!"

"Hmmm. I think I forgot."

She slapped his arm. "You better talk. I know ways to get it out of you..."

Lulu started to kiss his neck. Milo mad a low, deep sound and said "Mmm. That is no fair. You know damn well I can not resist that."

"Spill," she whispered, kissing his jaw. Her lips found his. "Spill."

Milo closed his eyes and pulled her into another kiss. Lulu climbed onto his lap. She broke the lip lock, looked in his eyes, and ordered "Spill."

Milo finally asked her, "Want to spend Spring Break on Sonny's private island?"

Her eyes lit up. "Really?! How can you afford that?"

"Jason suggested it, actually. Everything is comped, on the house. Including the plane ride down their on the company jet."

Lulu grew serious. "Should we be thinking of having fun when Carly is sick?"

"I said something similar to Jason. But, Lu, if you could have seen his face when he told me that he would stay with Carly and I should do all I can to make you happy. He said 'Don't waste time.' and ... his eyes were so devastated but determined... I never saw anything like it before."

"Oh, man. My cousin has to recover from this... she just has to, Milo, or none of us will be the same."

Lulu snuggled close to him and rested her head on his shoulder. Milo wrapped his arms around her.

"If you don't want to go to the island, it's okay, Lulu."

"I want to go." She looked up into his eyes. "I'd want to go anywhere with you. Don't you know that by now?"

The smile she gave him still made his heart flip flop every single time.

"Good." Milo couldn't resist giving her another kiss, before added "That was surprise number one."

Lulu bounded out of his arms and cried "There is more?!"

Her happiness made his heart swell. Though he was sure of her love for him, Milo's hand still shook as he reached into his pocket.

He let out a breath and then presented her with the jewelry box.

Lulu grew very still.

He flipped it open and said "It's a promise ring, baby."

She reached out and removed it from the box.

He said, "It means, if you accept it, that after you graduate college and I buy a little house, that... I will replace that ring with one that means I want you to be my wife. It's my promise to you that one day I will be your husband."

Lulu covered her mouth, speechless, and started to cry.

Milo, for the first time in months, couldn't read her. Was this _I'm so happy _tears or _Why did he go there _ones?

"What do you think?" he asked softly.

She nodded.

"Yeah?" he asked in a stunned voice.

Lulu held out her finger, passed him the ring, and Milo slid it on her. She stared at it for a long moment, with tears all over her face, and her heart racing in her chest.

"I love you, Milo. And, yes, I want to wear your promise ring. I want that promise from you. I want that life you're dreaming about. You have my heart," she sniffled "and you have my promise."

And then she smiled, a million watts aimed right at this man that could never resist her and had never even tried to.

Tears fell from his eyes when he pulled her close again and started to make love to this woman who stole his heart the first second he saw her, and changed his whole future when she started to love him back.

In her ear he whispered, "Happy Valentines Day, my beautiful girl."

(_And even if the sun refused to shine  
Even if romance ran out of rhyme_

_  
You would still have my heart until the end of time_

_  
'Cause all I need is you, my Valentine  
You're all I need, my love, my Valentine_)

Next up: Scrubs


	4. 2008 Patrick and Robin

Patrick had one mission on the holiday designated for lover's , to win his back. Robin had moved out of their home a month before, after he suggested they push the date they were planning on getting married back for the third time.

He knew it was his cold feet talking. And if she would have said, "Lets do it tonight" he would have been up for it. It was the waiting that drove him crazy and made him think about how he was sure he couldn't be a good husband to her.

But he wanted to be. He was desperate to be.

So he sat on her stoop and waited for her to come home. He prayed she would be more willing to talk to him than she was over the last few weeks at work.

An hour passed and it started to snow.

Patrick thought about all the nights he spent missing her, and the nights before that he had spent loving her. He ached for that future he had been too scared to grab and claim as his own: that house on Elm Street Robin wanted to make on offer on, the three kids and a dog she had already named before any of them existed, and the years where she would be the one he came home to every night.

A car splashed through the puddles and parked at the curb. Robin, Lainey and Kelly piled out. They were laughing and Patrick was sure he heard Kelly say "Screw men!" and Robin mutter some curse words before they spotted him.

They stopped dead in their tracks. The snow pounded down onto all of them.

Kelly said to Robin, "You don't have to talk to him."

Robin whispered, her eyes locked on Patrick, "I want to."

Lainey said, "Then we will get out of your way. Here, take my keys. You can have some privacy in my car."

The roommates dashed inside and Robin moved over to the car and unlocked it. She crawled into the backseat and Patrick joined her.

For a long moment, no one said anything. They wiped the snow off as best they could.

Robin said, "Should I run the heater?"

"I will. Or we could go somewhere else?"

Robin shook her head, no.

Patrick took the keys and started the car, cranked the heat, and then settled down next to her again.

He thought of his big speech to win her back. But, since his whole life depended on this going right, Patrick hesitated on starting it.

He opened his mouth and then Robin blurted out, "Why are you here anyway? I thought you didn't want me."

"Robin..." the word was a broken sound, two long hurt filled syllables.

She crossed her arms over her chest. "Or, at least, you didn't want to marry me."

Patrick threw the speech out the proverbial window and said, "Lets do it tonight."

Her head jerked to look at him. "Convenient, Dr. Drake. It wouldn't be legal since we didn't get the license yet."

"So we redo the vows later but you would still be my wife... in my heart you already are, Robin. And I am sorry if I ever made you doubt that. I just get nervous about all this marriage and babies and having a dog to feed on top of all that stuff." Patrick took her hand, " I get nervous but I still want it all. And I want it will you and I want it to start tonight."

Robin let out a ragged breath, "I want to believe you but..."

"Believe me, please." He kissed her. "Marry me." Again his lips were on hers. "Stay with me forever." Robin kissed him "Ignore my nervous ways." Another kiss, and Patrick kept talking like this. "Love me." She wrapped her arms around his neck and he said "Tell me you are my wife, Robin. Say those words and it will be set in stone, I swear to you."

She eased her head back and looked in his eyes, slowly she smiled, "You drive me crazy."

"In a good way?"

"In a crazy way."

"I love you, Robin. Is that enough? I can be better, do better, tell me what you want, tell me the kind of man you need, and I will be him. I will. I can."

"You're already him. You were born him, Patrick."

His eyes filled with tears. He had tried so hard to live up to some ideal and then kept falling short. But, in truth, he saw now, all she wanted was who he was at his core.

Robin cupped his cheek, "I'm your wife."

The tears spilled out of his eyes.

"Why don't you take your wife home, doctor, and show her a proper Valentine's Day?" Robin said, her voice low and sexy and making him want her, right there and right now in the backseat of a borrowed car.

"First we go and see that priest that baptized Nikolas' son. What was his name? And then you get your Valentine's day night honeymoon."

Robin kissed him, long and hard, letting her very soul be exposed in that moment.

Then she pulled back and said "If I ever leave you again, will you promise to come and find me? No matter what I say, come and find me, Patrick."

"Every single time."

(_I've dreamed of this a thousand times before  
But in my dreams I couldn't love you more_

_  
I will give you my heart_

_  
Until the end of time...  
You're all I need, my love, my Valentine_)


	5. 2008 Sonny and Emily

_Note-_

_Tracy, in the comments, asked me to write a Sonny and Emily section for this._

_Ok, fair warning, I am a huge Nem fan. Huge. But I will give this a shot. _

_Thanks for the idea, Tracy._

**Chapter Four- SONNY and EMILY- 2008**

Emily Quatermaine knew she had a good life.

If she wrote down all the positive things she had a piece of paper it would prove, without a doubt, she was blessed: a huge loving, if somewhat eccentric, family; a well paying career she loved in a field people admired; best friends that would kill and lie and steal for her; and she had her health, which she never took for granted anymore.

Yes, she had it good.

But every night after the long crazy shifts at the hospital she went home to a little house in the woods, a homey cottage who walls had bore witness to plenty of heartache, and she lay down to sleep, alone.

Once, not that many years before, she had thought it would all be different That she would also have love and happy every after, too. But her little girl dreams died when she walked in on her husband with another woman for the second time around.

Once a cheater, always a cheater...her aunt Tracy had warned her and yet she didn't want to listen to someone so bitter. She didn't want to believe. But now she did.

Tonight, after walking into the chapel and finding her brother crying, Emily was now emotionally wrecked. To go home and face all that silence would be overwhelming .

Instead, she strolled through the deserted park, letting the snow fall on her and doing her best to not think.

She breathed in and out and tried to concentrate on surviving, never would she had suspected it could be so hard to just live.

"Emily?"

She turned around and spotted the man who had just stepped out of the limo parked at the curb. He entered the park and moved close to her.

Sonny said, "I thought that was you. What are you doing out here in this weather?"

"Just..." the rest of her sentence drifted away.

Sonny titled his head and studied her. So beautiful, so sad.

He remembered back to how, for a short while a few years before, she had been the one light in his dark world. Her smile was pure sunshine and hope. And now that smile was long gone.

_(And even if the sun refused to shine  
Even if romance ran out of rhyme)_

"You shouldn't spend the holiday," he said gently "alone in the park."

"Holiday?"

The way she asked nearly broke his heart. This woman should be treasured, on this day most of all.

"It's Valentines Day, Emily."

"Oh." she glanced away "I guess it is."

Sonny touched her arm. "Let me give you a ride home."

She met his eyes, the snow tumbled in big chunks to the ground around them, and then she nodded, once. And let him slide his arm around her waist as they moved back to the warmth and comfort of his car.

Sonny said to Max, "Back to my place." Then he pushed the button to raise the privacy screen.

Emily turned to Sonny and said, in a rush of words, "You can just drop me at home or at the hospital, my car is there. I don't want to be a bother..."

Softly he said, "You've been a lot of things to me, but never a bother."

Emily smiled, a small heartbreaking one that said it was nice that someone still felt that way about her.

She blew on her hands. Sonny took them into his and rubbed slightly, engulfing her in his heat.

Emily sighed at the sweet gesture. It had been so long since someone took care of her.

He said, his voice low and intimate, "You deserve to celebrate Valentine's Day."

Emily's eyes filled with pain, they darted away from his.

The reaction made Sonny want to find Nikolas and teach him a lesson about what real hurt could feel like. Instead he let go of Emily's hands and cupped her face.

"You deserve to be loved on Valentine's Day," Sonny whispered "If anyone deserves it, it's you...you're gorgeous inside and out, Em, you really are and..."

Emily quickly met his eyes again and then brought her lips to his. Yes, this is what she wanted, this is where she needed to be. Back here where nothing existed but his body touching hers, him making her feel like a treasure, the rest of the world fell away.

Sonny eased back first. His dark eyes were filled with desire for her, it sparked in his gaze and hit her like thunderbolts. She felt hunger course through her, sliding down from the mouth, that his lips were just kissing, over her heart, that was so fragile, and down into the center of her- so much need that she gasped at the feel of it.

"Emily..." There was no way he would take advantage of her, so he started to move back more.

"Make me feel better. Only you can do that, Sonny. Will you..please..."

Her words were a whimper, filled with longing. He realized he could deny her nothing, he could only give to her and hope it would be enough.

Sonny ran his thumb over her mouth. "Such beautiful lips... such a beautiful woman... the most beautiful woman..." then he was kissing her again.

_(You would still have my heart until the end of time_

_'Cause all I need is you,_

_my Valentine_

_  
You're all I need, my love, my Valentine_)

Martina McBride song


	6. 2008 Lucky and Sam

My Valentine

_Note- This chapter is dedicated to J C Morgan for suggesting Lucky and Sam as a couple to add to this story._

LUCKY AND SAM-2008

"Do you have any plans for tonight?" he asked her as they walked out of Kelly's after lunch.

"Yeah, right. A hot date."

Lucky smiled. "It could happen."

"Sure, sure. Don't start lying to me now." Her tone was light, she joked back at him "The only guy in this town beating down the doors to get a chance with me is a spaced out, albeit adorable, baby faced slacker. And I'm not spending Valentine's Day with The Jackal."

"How about with me?"

The question hung in the air as Sam turned and studied him.

Lucky could tell she caught the tone in his voice, a little more intimate than ever before, a little more personal than the friendly chats they shared over the last six months.

They were two people who knew about riding the highest highs and hitting the lowest lows. And that is why Lucky believed they fit together so well. And could be so much more than they were now.

More than friends who sipped coffee together on the docks or slammed shots down at Jake's, more than someone to call at 2 am when memories of the past made it impossible to sleep, more than just buddies.

Lucky wanted Sam's eyes to darken with desire for him, her mouth to open under his, her sighs to brush over his ear, her moans to be followed by his name.

He wanted her. And on this day when love was supposed to be paramount, he planned to tell her that, for the first time.

"What do you have in mind?" Sam asked "An Anti- Valentine's Day hate fest at Jake's? We can swap war stories about who is more cursed when it comes to love."

"We've done that enough already. How about something a little less _slit our wrists over our beers _depressing and a little more... fun." The way he said the last word hinted at what he had in mind.

"Fun? Hmmm. Do I remember how to have that?"

"I think you do."

"You might have to remind me how it's done."

"I could do that," Lucky smiled at her and let his voice ease even lower as he added "if you would give me the chance. So what do you say, Sam?"

She held his eyes.

He knew she was kick ass brave, and had been since she was a kid. The stories she told him about living on the streets with her Dad and conning made him think she could handle anything or anyone. And since she came to Port Charles her life hadn't gotten any easier, any less dangerous, or given her many happy memories.

But he figured, together, they could change that. If she was interested.

"I don't know..." her words were soft and her eyes darted downwards. "I think I have to ...baby-sit ...my sisters."

The girl was gun shy now. Her heart had been broken in so many pieces that no matter what happened she doubted she could find them all and make herself as whole as she was the day before Liz told Jason they were having a baby.

Lucky tried to not let his disappointment show. He said, "No big deal. Call me if you get done early."

He walked away thinking she wasn't going to call. And wondering if he should just let this drop because Sam had become too good of friend to lose, and lose her he might he pushed for something she didn't want.

Still for a second there he thought he saw something in her eyes. Something as needy and hungry for him as he was for her.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

**Sam waited until 11: 22 pm, and then she couldn't deny what she wanted anymore. She **threw the covers off and raced around her apartment to get dressed again. She slid into jeans and a t-shirt and then pulled that all back off. On went lingerie and a dress, she did her hair in record time and ran for her car, carrying her heels.

All day long, Lucky had been in her mind. All through work, through her dinner of take out in front of the TV, through her shower and then when she climbed in bed.

She would laugh thinking of the times he made jokes to cheer her up when the worst of the blues hit, and her heart would swell when she thought of the nights when only his voice on the other end of the phone was enough to keep her from going crazy with grief about the child she would never give birth to now. She shook her head, smiling, at the crazy way they had bonded and become friends.

_Valentine's Day 2007_

_Sam stood precariously close to the edge of the pier. All she had to do was lean forward a inch and her body weight would send her tumbling in to the black, murky depths of the river._

"_Are you gonna jump?"_

_She recognized the voice and asked "Why? Is that a crime? You planning on hauling me in, Officer?"_

"_Nope. Just trying to figure out if you're going to go first or me."_

_For a second, she just smirked, trying not to let his snarky joke make her feel better. But that kind of grim humor was just her style, and Sam started to chuckle._

_She took a step backwards. It wasn't like she had plans to toss herself in, she just_ _wanted to rest on the splinter's edge of life and death. And think about what it would be like to end it all, to end the pain for good._

_Lucky walked closer to her. "Not tonight, huh?"_

"_Not tonight."_

"_Maybe tomorrow?"_

"_Maybe."_

"_Meet me back here and we can take turns talking each other out of it again."_

"_What a life. Now I am part of a suicide prevention club." Sam joked. " And I thought it couldn't get any worse."_

"_You were wrong," he said _

_She chuckled again. _

_Lucky added, "And I thought it couldn't get any better." He gave her a smile "Looks like I was wrong too."_

Sam shivered now as she remembered the way his words this morning sounded deeper, more intimate, like he had discovered her secret desire for him and now was pushing her to reveal it aloud.

Did Lucky know how bad she wanted him to be hers?

Sam wasn't sure. But he had made an offer to be with her tonight and though Valentine's Day was almost over she wanted to take him up on it.

As soon as she stepped outside her foot sunk into the snow that was piling onto the sidewalk.

Sam yelped, slipped on her heels and, with her heart racing, hurried toward her car.

XXXXXXXXXXX

**Lucky was strumming his guitar**, wearing jeans and no shirt. He sat on the edge of his bed, wishing he wasn't there alone, wishing Sam was laying next to him looking at him in that way that made him think whatever he had to offer her was just what she wanted.

She got his jokes. She got why he had to take risks everyday in order to feel alive. She got why he couldn't sleep around, why he was a little broken, a little sad at times, why life could feel so bittersweet. She got him, like no one else ever had.

He sang, " _If there were no words_, _no way to speak. I would still hear you. If there were no tears, no way to feel inside. I'd still feel for you."_

_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX_

Sam ran up the stairs, combed her hand over her hair, took in a breath and then let it out before she walked down the long hall that led to Lucky's apartment.

At the door she heard music drifting through the air. Lucky's voice washed over her, penetrating her fragile heart and sinking into her very soul, "_And even if the sun refused to shine, even if romance ran out of rhyme. You would still have my heart until the end of time. You're all I need, my love, my Valentine_."

She smiled and silently prayed he was thinking of her when he sang.

Sam lifted her hand and knocked.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

**Lucky turned his eyes **toward the clock. _Who would come by so late_? He wondered _Did Cruz' girlfriend put him out again and he needs a couch to crash on?_

But when he opened the door it wasn't his partner staring back at him, it was her. The one he couldn't get out of his head.

"Too late?" she asked

Lucky motioned for her to come in.

Sam walked past him, turned and gave him a shy smile. "You said something about wanting to spend Valentine's Day with me?"

"That I did."

Lucky swallowed as his eyes took in her red dress, her nervous but hopeful smile, and the way her eyes were asking him if maybe they shared the same secret.

"Do you want a drink?" he asked

"No. But there is something you could do for me. Call it my present for this holiday, if you want," Sam said. "Will you finish that song I heard you singing?"

"Is that all? You are too easy to please, Miss McCall." He took her hand and brought her into the bedroom where his guitar sat on the bed.

He opened a drawer and pulled out a t-shirt to cover his bare chest.

"Lucky..."

Looking over his shoulder he saw her shake her head, no, just once. He tossed the shirt on his dresser and joined her on the bed.

He started the song over, his words soft and sensual. When he got to the third verse he finally looked up from the strings he was strumming and met her eyes, letting her know this was how he felt about her _"All of my life I have been waiting for all you give to me. You opened my eyes and showed me how to love unselfishly. I've dreamed of this a thousand times before. In my dreams I couldn't love you more_."

He set down the guitar and ever so slowly too her shaking hand in his before continuing "_I will give you my heart until the end of time. You're all I need, my love, my Valentine_."

For a moment, neither spoke, as their eyes probed each other, looking for the truth, looking for love.

"Sam, there's something I need to tell you..."

"I think I know..." then she closed the distance between them by wrapping one arm around his neck and scooting closer. She bit her lip, her eyes kept questioning his.

Before he brought his lips onto hers, Lucky whispered "Be my Valentine. Be mine."

XXXXXXXXX

**Sam loved the tender **way his lips brushed over his, feather light, and then how he gave her one achingly short but sweet kiss before he pulled away and said, "I'm glad you decided to come here tonight. You were the only thing on my mind all day."

Her body relaxed then, almost as if she knew she was safe now.

Her hand moved to his cheek "You know, don't you? How long I've wanted you...how bad...how much this means..."

"I do now."

She smiled "Surprise."

"I'm in love with you," he said

Sam gasped.

Lucky added, "Surprise."

She started to laugh and then he was kissing her again. A year to the day after they both gave up any hope of getting a happy ever after, they got one anyway.

And Lucky confirmed what he suspected all along, they fit together perfectly.

_And even if the sun refused to shine  
Even if romance ran out of rhyme  
You would still have my heart until the end of time_

_Cause all I need is you, my Valentine  
You're all I need, my love, _

_my Valentine_


	7. 2008 Nikolas and Liz

Note - _This chapter is dedicated to Ashyen, who mentioned in her story notes on one of her fics that she likes the idea of this pairing_.

LIZ AND NIK-2008

**She was laying in bed **beneath a heavy down comforter, but still she shivered.

Elizabeth felt the loneliness, like a unwanted houseguest, sink down into her bones.

This home she lived in- the one Jason bought so she could raise their daughter and Cameron in a place with a big back yard- was full of life during the day, as the kids ran and played, and stark empty silence at night.

Jason lived across town and was in love with another woman.

Some other woman. There had always seemed to be one of those where Jason was concerned. And this one Liz couldn't fight, wouldn't even try to, because that is not how she wanted to get any man's love.

Besides, late last summer, a different man took Jason's place in her fantasies. A man she had no business ever thinking about that way. A man who, at that time, was married to her best friend.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

**Nikolas rang the doorbell, **hoping he didn't wake the children. He pictured her rising from bed, her white gown clinging to her skin, and slipping her feet into those old torn up bunny slippers.

The guard glared at him. As if he knew Nikolas was not supposed to be here at 2 am.

She opened the door with a worried expression. "What is it? Is someone hurt?"

"Nothing so dire. May I come in?"

The porch light illuminated him and the guard who stood a few steps away, ready to toss Nikolas onto the curb if Liz gave him the slightest indication the visitor was unwanted.

She gave Nik a look, one that said it all without words. He knew this was something they agreed to not do.

He also knew she was going to let him in anyway.

_(If there were no words,  
no way to speak,  
I would still hear you._

_  
If there were no tears,  
no way to feel inside,  
I'd still feel for you) _

XXXXXXXX

**She made coffee, **just for something to do. But when she came back into the living room, setting the tray on the table, she didn't offer it to him.

Instead she said "You're not supposed to be here."

"No, I'm not."

She joined him on the couch. "It's too complicated."

"Yes, it is."

She shook her head at him, then smiled, because of course he was being completely reasonable with his words and unreasonable with his tone, which was low and filled with desire for her.

Liz pulled her ratty pink robe tighter over her silky nightgown.

Nikolas added, "You had to know I would want to wish you a Happy Valentine's Day."

His gaze worked over her from head to toe, making her skin flush, and her body start to thump with an ache only he could take away.

This ticked Liz off, because he wasn't supposed to have this affect on her. And before that day last year, he hadn't.

"One damn kiss, Nikolas. One kiss and look at this mess we are in."

"It was one hell of a kiss, though."

Liz stood up and started to move away from him, needing distance if she had any hope of resisting the pull she felt when his eyes connected with hers.

They had decided to pay penitence for ruining his marriage by never again talking about that night, never forgiving themselves, and never, ever, ever going there again.

Now he had chosen Valentine's Day, or the early morning after, to come here with sex in his eyes and bring it all up again.

"That kiss cost you a marriage and almost cost me my best friend. We are lucky Em even speaks to us!" Liz ranted at him.

"Don't you think I know that?" Nikolas stood up and started to close the gap between them. "But it doesn't change the fact that I go to sleep seeing your face in my mind every night. Every night, Elizabeth. I know I am not supposed to feel this way. I know it would be easier if I could stop." He finally reached her and slowly raised his hand and brushed a strand of her long brown hair behind her ear. "But I can't stop."

Nikolas lowered his mouth to his and the moment before he kissed her whispered again, his voice ragged and desperate, "I can not stop wanting you...wanting this..."

And either could she. She didn't protest when he slipped the robe from her shoulders, she barely even noticed because his lips were still on hers, his tongue was inside her mouth, and then his hands were sliding against her night gown, up her back causing her to arch toward him.

"If you want me to leave, tell me now" the tone of his voice begged her not to push him away, but let her know he would understand her choice either way.

They both felt like they would be damned to hell if they gave into this lust.

But, tonight, when they had spent six months already wanting this, and six months praying they could stop wanting this, it was too much to take anymore.

Whether they went down into the flames for this or not, Liz didn't care at this moment.

"Don't stop," she breathed out.

He cupped her face and their kiss this time was even more desperate and out of control.

"There's a downstairs bedroom in the back of the house," she whispered.

He picked her up and their eyes met. Once more they studied each other, thinking about how they were never supposed to give into this.

"Don't stop," Liz told him for a second time.

And that is all Nikolas needed to hear. The sun would be up soon, there was no more time to waste.

_Cause all I need is you, _

_my Valentine_

_  
You're all I need, my love, my Valentine_


	8. 2008 Max and Leticia

MAX AND LETICIA- 2008

_This chapter was inspired by lakergirl4life, who suggested I write about this couple._

"I thought I would find you here," her soft words drifted down the cold, sterile hospital hallway and brought him a measure of comfort. She the one soothing thing in this drab place.

Max stepped away from the open doorway, pulling his gaze from the sleeping woman in the bed, and faced the one who was approaching.

He smiled, but it was small and sad like a wilting flower, and didn't come close to reaching his eyes.

"You didn't have to check up on me," Max told her.

"Yeah, I did." Leticia said. For a moment she just studied him, and Max felt all her concern washing over him.

Finally, she asked "Is there any change with Carly?"

He shook his head, no. "How are the kid's holding up?"

"They're at a big sleep over at Alexis' house. Voila will call my cell if Morgan has that recurring nightmare again. Though, I think the little guy will be alright." Leticia added softly, " We'll all be alright, Max."

"God..." he shook his head and turned slightly away, looking at the white wall instead of her overly kind and beautiful face. "I wish had your optimism. Do they sell that stuff in a bottle somewhere? I'd buy it by the case."

"You can borrow some of mine," she slipped her hand in his. "Just for tonight."

Max marveled at how she always showed up or called right when he was at his lowest point. It seemed no one else noticed the emotions that stayed right below the surface of him, but somehow she did.

He suspected it was because they were alike. Him having his attraction to Carly, while her heart longed for Sonny. At least that is what he _figured_.

Why else would she understand him like she did?

He let Leticia lead him out of the hospital and then let go of her hand. "Thanks. It was sweet of you to think of me."

She smiled, and held his eyes for the briefest of moments. Then she looked down and said, "Good night then."

Leticia was a few feet away when Max called out, "You got anywhere you need to be?"

She turned around slowly, and the first thing he noticed was her dazzling smile.

Never before had she looked so radiant to him. But then never before had he even hinted at them doing anything outside of work together.

Could she actually have been waiting for him to make a move?

The idea stunned him, but then quickly started to give him hope. And hope was what he desperately needed tonight.

"You have something in mind?" she asked

"Jake's?"

"On Valentine's Day?" her tone made it sound like the least romantic place on earth.

XXXXXXXXXX

**Leticia wondered if he was finally **getting it, finally seeing her and what she felt for him.

For years they worked together. She went home each night to a boyfriend she grew less and less enchanted with as time went on, and came to work each day to see Max, a man who only became braver, and yet also, more sensitive with each passing day.

He smiled now, a slow and easy grin that made her heart flutter.

"I know a place," he said.

She would have followed him anywhere, absolutely anywhere, for the chance to be the one he looked at with all that devotion and undying love she saw when he looked at Carly.

Leticia had dumped her no good boyfriend before Christmas. There was no sense in staying with him when the only man she wanted to share her heart with stood in front of her at this very moment.

"Well then, Max, lead the way."

XXXXXXXXXX

**She followed him in **her car, applying lipstick at the traffic lights, dragging her brush out of her purse at a stop sign.

Max watched all this in his rearview mirror, and chuckled to himself.

In the parking lot, he leaned against his car to wait for her. He could see Leticia, with the dome light of her car shining on her, spraying on perfume.

He smiled.

Leticia walked across the parking lot, her heels clicking on the pavement.

"The No Name?" she asked "Is this place even safe to go into?"

"For me, yes. And for you when you are with me." Max took her hand and noticed that her smile came back in an instant. "This restaurant is actually the one relatively safe place for the men in my business to relax."

XXXXXXXX

**They had a drink at the **bar. His eyes couldn't help but notice the way she was glowing tonight, her eyes shimmered brighter than he had ever seen before.

He had a hard time believing it could be because she was with him. But Max was not about to question it.

There was something to be said for just living in the moment. Too often he dwelled on what could never be, the future that would always stay a dream.

Tonight he wanted to live some kind of reality that could temper his constant ache, calm some of his jagged nerves, make this holiday seem something other than tragic.

Max stood up and offered her his hand.

They moved to the dance floor.

Leticia said, "I like this."

"This song?"

"This being held in your arms, Max."

Every thought in his head disappeared, but her and those words.

He suddenly knew, down to his bones, that he would spend the rest of his days on earth thanking God Leticia had just said that.

XXXXXXXXXX

**Leticia exhaled**.

For her there was no doubt. The wait was over.

_(I've dreamed of this a thousand times before._

_  
But in my dreams I couldn't love you more._

_  
I will give you my heart  
until the end of time..._

_  
You're all I need, my love, my Valentine)_

He said, "You are the sweetest thing I've ever seen."

"Do you see me though? Now?"

He bent his head until his lips slowly brushed over hers. She melted into him, her body losing all ability to keep her up. Max's arm were more than capable of holding her steady though.

"I see you, Leticia. Now, I see you."

_XXXXXXXXXXX_

**Max was used to **saving people. And not because he was paid to do so. Because they were his family, they had his loyalty for life. They all held a little piece of his soul. But now, he could see, there was one person who would take the biggest chunk.

And he was happy to give it to her, right then without hesitation.

"Leticia," he whispered her name "I think I'm playing catch up here, huh?"

"'Fraid so."

He smiled. "I'll make it worth the wait."

"I'm counting on it," she said softly.

Her brown eyes held nothing back, all her love for him was on display, and it took his breath away. The rest of the people in the restaurant suddenly faded away, and all there was- as far as her could see- was Leticia and those breath stealing eyes.

Max Giambetti finally found out what it felt like to have someone come along and save his life

_(You're all I need, my love, my Valentine)_


	9. 2008 Johnny and Brenda

BRENDA AND JOHNNY- 2008

_Note- this couple was suggested by lakergirl4life_

**Rome**

They lay in the dark together, his arm hugging her bare stomach, dragging her close to him.

This was one of those times when it felt like they were the only two people in the world. Here in the dark, with only the sound of each other breathing, it was easy to pretend that was true.

(_If there were no words  
no way to speak  
I would still hear you._

_  
If there were no tears,  
no way to feel inside,_

_  
I'd still feel for you) _

But her mind wouldn't stop thinking about the phone call from Robin she received that afternoon. Her best friend had put off calling as long as she could, hoping something might change, but it hadn't.

Brenda learned that Carly was losing each day's memories when she fell asleep at night. And that every time it happened it hit Jason like the first time. He was wearing down under the strain of it all, and it was starting to show to people who didn't know him.

People who could kill him.

Brenda had told her husband all this over dinner. At that time his only response was to nod, once, but in his eyes she saw the pain flash, the memories come back, the old hurt over being cast out brought to life once more.

Neither one of them were supposed to go back to Port Charles. Him so he could stay alive. Her so she could stay sane.

"You know we have to go home, right?" Johnny asked, his husky voice right against her ear.

"I could go alone. Check on him."

"No."

Brenda rolled over to face him. She laid her hand on his cheek. "You gave your word you wouldn't step foot in that town again."

"It won't be the first time I have broken my word," the bitter way he said it aimed the insult only at himself.

"Baby."

"We'll leave in the morning."

She knew better than to argue when he had that tone. Most times he was a sucker for her fluttering eyelashes, teasing smile, or pouting lips. She could make him weak, and Brenda loved that. Because he did the same thing for her.

But, when he was like this- all determined and no nonsense- there was nothing she could do to change his mind. Instead she would stand by him, hand-in- hand, with all her love as a shield and they would go back into the lion's den together.

She let her hand slide up his washboard abs, as her mouth sucked on his bottom lip.

Brenda wouldn't worry about tomorrow right now. Tonight she would just love this man, and be grateful that he loved her.

And thank God, like she did every day, that he come halfway around the world to find her, to love her, to be her everything.

(_And even if the sun refused to shine  
Even if romance ran out of rhyme_

_  
You would still have my heart _

_until the end of time_

_  
You're all I need, my love, _

_my Valentine)_

XXXXXXXXXXXX

**They arrived in Port Charles very **late on Valentine's night and headed straight for the hospital. Johnny drove the rented black Porsche through the snow covered streets, while Brenda sat next to him, her eyes staring out at the passing landmarks she knew so well.

In the backseat, the car seat held their sleeping child.

Johnny carried the baby through the parking lot and into the building. Then passed her to his wife. Their eyes stayed on each other as they waited for the elevator doors to open. When they did, Monica stepped out.

"Brenda! When did you get home?"

"About five minutes ago."

The two women hugged and Monica cooed over the baby. She was reintroduced to Johnny and then Brenda said, "We actually came to see Jason. Is he still around here somewhere?"

"I was headed to the chapel to sit with him. Emily called me and said...well, his is taking this all so hard. And not leaning on anyone. You know Jason, so I am sure you can imagine."

Johnny asked, "If you don't mind, could I go and see him instead?"

"Of course. You came all this way, after all. I am sure Jason will appreciate it."

Johnny and his wife shared a look, and then he bent and kissed her cheek. He spoke to the baby before walking away, "You be my little angel for your mama, you hear?" His voice was even softer when he added, "Daddy loves you."

XXXXXXXXXX

**Brenda had to do some fast talking **to get by head nurse Epiphany Johnson in order to be able to bring her baby into Carly's room. She had to break down and give the nurse the impression her and Carly were sisters. And even that only earned her a twenty minute visit.

It was one of those times when Brenda wished her looks worked as well on woman as they did men.

She sat in a chair, near the bed, and stared at her former rival. The biggest problem between the two women is that they kept falling for the same men. But now that was all a moot point. Unless Carly recovered and turned her eyes toward Johnny, then it would be on.

Brenda smiled at the thought of it.

She would love to be fighting with Carly right now. At least that would mean this blonde spitfire was back to her normal self. And Jason would stop hurting, and so would she and Johnny who felt his pain as their own. And Emily and Robin and Sonny and who knew how many more people.

Carly's eyes fluttered, she moaned, "Jason."

When her eyes opened she grimaced. "You."

"Yep, me."

"Where are you doing in my bedroom? Come to steal Jason out from right out under my nose?" Carly slowly sat up.

Her eyes took in the hospital room, and then the baby.

"What's going on, Brenda?"

"I came to introduce you to my daughter" she smiled "I think you'll like her name."

"Don't tell me? Carly?"

"Yeah right."

"You came all this way from wherever you were hiding, just to bug me. So get on with it. What is her name?"

"Jase."

"You're right," Carly smiled "for once. I do like that name. Now can you tell me something?"

"Shoot. And I do not mean that literally, just in case you were getting excited."

"Why am I in the hospital?"

Brenda shrugged, "Don't ask me. Does it look like I work here?"

It was a smart ploy. Carly snarked back and her and they carried on that way for a while longer, leaving the question of what landed Carly here unanswered.

Brenda would stay until Jason came back. Because, she had learned years ago, he was the only one with any talent when it came to the craft of dealing with Carly.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

**Johnny stepped into the chapel **and spotted his former boss and friend with his head down, praying.

He waited until Jason looked up again before saying his name.

Jason turned and met his eyes. Johnny waited for some kind of reaction, harsh words that would make the break final.

But they didn't come.

His betrayal by working with Alcazar was not forgotten. But in the wake of what was happening now, it seemed small, a fragment from the past that didn't change the years they had spent being loyal to each other, as close as brothers once.

"It's been a long time," Jason said "How is she?"

"Brenda? The same as ever- head strong and break your heart beautiful. And... a mother now."

"Good. Good."

Johnny walked over and sat next to Jason. For a while neither said anything, and then Jason spoke, his words soft, "I guess you heard about Carly..."

"Yeah."

Jason nodded.

More minutes ticked by, they stared at the candles burning. Johnny lit one for Carly.

"So you'll stay then," Jason said as if it was a foregone conclusion "For a while, at least."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

**Brenda and Johnny took **a suite at The Metro Court, which was rebuilt after the lobby exploded from a bomb the previous year.

Once Jase was asleep, Brenda filled the over sized tub with hot soapy water and led husband to the bathroom. She slowly unbutton his shirt, drug it from his pants and stripped it off his body. Without a word she turned and he unzipped her dress.

When they were in the tub she rested her head on his chest. With lazy, unfocused, motions his hand ran over her skin.

"Never forget me, okay?" he asked

"Never."

She turned her head and met his eyes. Those eyes were her safe place. She could face anything if those eyes were there keeping her strong.

She could face Port Charles, and the man who had, once upon a time, made her feel unstable. She could face seeing all that pain etched on Jason's face, somehow she would have to because he needed both of them. She could face the future, and the past, and the unknown as long as Johnny kept his hand within reach of hers and his eyes where she could turn and find her security once more.

His voice was lighter when he told her, "You didn't even ask for your Valentine's Day present. That is not the Brenda I know and love..."

"I'm getting a present?"

Her tone gave her away.

"Oh, you little brat. You found it already, didn't you?" He tickled her beneath the bubbles. Brenda squealed. "There is going to have to be some punishment for your snooping..."

She gave him a tender yet sexy look, her lips curved into her famous heartbreaker smile and then she asked "What did you have in mind, Johnny?"

His hands slid through the water, against her body, one going up and one going down, leaving no doubt what he had in mind.

(_Cause all I need is you,_

_my Valentine_

_  
You're all I need, my love, my Valentine_)


	10. 2008 Cooper and Maxie

My Valentine

_Note- This chapter is for talk2much13 and Hazeleyes 18 who both mentioned they would like to see this couple added to the story._

_This story mentions Three's real name. If it was said on GH, I missed it. But thanks to talk2much13 I was able to find it out._

**THREE AND MAXIE- 2008**

_I have no business being anyone's mother. _

Maxie Jones had always thought that. There were plenty of reasons, starting with the fact she was sure she would die young- it was a feeling she always lived with since her heart surgery- and ending with the fact she had faked a pregnancy. That was just bad karma, any way you looked at it.

But, in only a few more minutes or maybe seconds, she would become just that. Someone's mother.

"AHHHHH!" the scream escaped her and she threw her head back, closed her eyes, and remembered the day she chose this road, this man, this future for herself.

_**May 2007**_

_She hadn't smiled, really smiled, in months. If Maxie was honest with herself the last time she was happy was when she was trapped in the vault with Three._

_You're twisted, girl, she told herself. _

_But it was true. _

_When the cops stormed the place, in all the smoke and destruction and screaming, there was one last moment when he gripped her hand and then kissed her cheek. _

_After that, Three was gone. He was the only one in Craig's crew to not either die or get arrested._

_She liked to think he missed her like she missed him._

_But, if she was honest with herself- and not living in some fantasy world where she got a happy ending- Maxie doubted Three put as much effort into dreaming about her as she did him._

_Then her cell phone rang one afternoon, as she stood outside Kelly's sipping her vanilla latte._

_She set the drink on a nearby table and answered it._

"_Don't say my name," his words were low and demanding. _

_Her heart started to do crazy things, slow down then race, flip flop, and none of it had anything to do with her heart condition. It was him that affected her, just as deeply and intense as when they were trapped together._

"_I don't know your name."_

_She could tell he was smiling when he said, "But you do know who this is, right?"_

"_Yes." she paused, butterflies fluttered through her stomach. For one moment she just wanted to feel this feeling that usually eluded her : hope. "Where are you?"_

"_On a train. Headed to Boston."_

_She had told him that one of her favorite songs last year was by the band Augustana, because she loved the part that went_

I think I'll go to Boston, I think I'll start a new life, I think I'll start it over, where no one knows my name...

_So many times she thought about ditching Port Charles and going somewhere else, to be someone else, to be better or happier or maybe just be as bad as she wanted without anyone judging her anymore. _

_Three added, "And I was thinking... if you still want that new life..."_

"_Oh you were, were you?"_

"_That is if you haven't gone and forgotten about me," he told her._

_In that moment, Maxie knew she was no longer in this game called life alone. And it changed every single thing she thought and felt, it changed her._

_Three said, "The train will be pulling into Port Charles in a couple of hours. Get on... that is if you have the guts to walk away from Mommy and Daddy, little sister and your big career at that boutique..."_

"_That boutique is a pile of rubble now."_

"_Oh, yeah. I guess it is. But I'm sure there must be another retail job you could spend your life unhappy at in that town. Unless you think you might like to spend it with me instead."_

"_Are you daring me?"_

"_Double dog daring you, Maxie."_

"_Well, I have never backed down from a dare."_

_And so she was on that train that afternoon, leaving behind a note that read:_

I'm starting a new life. Be happy for me. Part of my heart will always stay here with you both, Mac and Georgie. And it goes without saying, but I will anyway, I love you.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

**Valentine's Day 2008**

Cooper was sweating nearly as bad as his girlfriend as she huffed and moaned, trying to push their son into the world.

He grabbed her hand but she smacked him away.

"Ugh, you caused this, Coop!"

He smiled. "I know that, babe."

"You... you... you...ahhhh... you ..._man_." she insulted him.

"You're doing great," he told her.

Maxie snapped at him, "I am telling you right now if you think you are ever getting me knocked up again you can forget about it because I plan on getting my figure back and looking damn good in my wedding dress. And once is more than enough for me when it comes to gaining forty pounds and getting bloated and swollen and..."

She tended to rant on like this when she was nervous. He found it adorable.

"All right, I got it." Cooper told her

She met his eyes.

The doctor said, "One more big push now..."

Maxie grabbed his hand and they were linked together the moment their son was born.

XXXXXXXXXX

**He held the baby in his **arms. Maxie was sleeping in the hospital bed.

He thought back to how he had gotten himself here, how he got himself what he never had before that botched robbery at The Metro Court : a life that was worth a damn, love, and, sweetest of all, hope.

_**May 2007**_

_Maxie walked down the aisle of the train, scanning faces for him. Cooper spotted her, and for a second he could not move. Just couldn't move. She was here, she was real, and she had come here to be with him._

_Then he stood and her gaze moved toward him. When her eyes met his, a smile broke out on her face._

_He didn't know what the hell he was thinking asking her to move to Boston with him. All he knew was he had dreamt of her so many times over the last few months that he had to see her again or he would surely go crazy._

_Maxie passed him her suitcase, "Do something with this, will you?"_

_Same snarky tone and bossy voice he remembered. He had missed that, too._

_He put the luggage in the overhead bin and then motioned for her to take the seat near the window. She slid past him, and his body reacted to the brief brush of her body against his._

_The first thing she asked was, "Name?"_

"_Don't you think you should have worried about that before you agreed to this?" he joked with her._

"_Don't you think you ought to tell me now before I get upset and start thinking of ways to make you pay for holding out on me?" Maxie joked back_

"_Cooper."_

"_Hmmm. I like it."_

"_Good because I don't know how I would have survived if you didn't," he meant it to sound like a joke but it wasn't and it didn't._

_He swallowed as the smiles fell away from their faces._

_Maxie let out a breath and looked away for a moment. _

_He prayed she wasn't already regretting doing this. Because for him it felt like his life stopped the moment he ran from The Metro Court, leaving her safe and only steps from cops but behind all the same. And it felt like it started again when he saw her step into the train car a few minutes ago._

_She was smiling when she turned and ordered, "Tell me you aren't broke. Because I so am."_

"_I'm not broke."_

"_This might just work out then." Her eyes were moving from his eyes to his mouth and back again. She sucked in a breath._

_Cooper brought one hand up and ran it into her blonde hair. Maxie bit her lip._

_He smiled at the sight of this brave, bold, sometimes angry, secretly sensitive and wonderfully unique woman who was looking at him like he was making her life worthwhile. _

_Then his lips were on hers, and though he had been fantasizing this moment for months, what happened when their lips touched was beyond where a fantasy could go._

_It was shocking, it was hot, it was the start of a wild thing that neither of them would ever want to walk away from again._

**Valentine's Day 2008**

Maxie woke up to see Cooper holding their baby. The image brought tears to her eyes. It was more than she ever thought she would be lucky enough to get in her lifetime.

(_All of my life  
I have been waiting for  
all you give to me._

_  
You've opened my eyes  
and showed me how to love unselfishly_)

"How is he doing?" she asked

"Perfect and beautiful, just like his mama."He stood and moved over to her bed. "But he does need a name."

"I thought we decided," Maxie pouted "He'll be named after his daddy."

"You can not name a child Three. It's cruel."

Maxie laughed, "No, it's cute."

He shook his head, no.

"Fine. Man, you never let me win an arguement."

"I always let you win!" he laughed

"Then let me win this time." Maxie took her child into her arms. "You want to be named Three, don't you?"

"How about a compromise? We name our boy Cooper James. C. J.

for short."

Her eyes washed over the man she loved, standing there by her side looking as gorgeous as ever, and thought of how they started and where they were. It made no sense. And yet, it made perfect sense. Because it was them, and they were... silly as it sounded to a cynic...meant to be.

"C. J. it is then," she agreed. "Cooper James. I like it."

He sat on the edge of the bed and stroked the baby's head. He kissed their child. "Happy Valentine's Day, son."

Then he stroked Maxie's hair and kissed her lips, soft and tender, a change from the crazy way they devoured each other in bed. "Happy Valentine's Day, new mama."

"Happy Valentine's Day, Three."

_I will give you my heart until_

_the end of time..._

_  
You're all I need, my love,_

_my Valentine_


	11. 2009 Jason and Carly

Hello everyone. This is the first chapter in the next set of one shots. Not sure how many I will do or what couples I will focus on.

The new song that will weave through it is

_From This Moment On _by Shania Twain

**JASON AND CARLY- 2009**

Carly looked at her watch, slightly annoyed. Jason was late. _He better not stand me up_, she pouted silently.

In truth, she had no fear he would. Her best friend never tried to hurt her intentionally. Even if that meant he had to hurt himself to try and give her what she wanted.

Carly's eyes scanned the faces in the room then moved to the door. She knew there was no way Jason had forgotten about tonight.

He didn't forget anything that was important.

The man who didn't remember the first half of his life was now the keeper of her memories. Carly had lost the ability to recall ninety-five days of her life the year before. And for months later she felt disorientated.

But Jason would fill in the gaps. Time after time, story after story, he would describe to her what happened on every day she missed. And since he couldn't lie to her, Jason was forced to tell her the things he had said when she was sick , things she forget back then as soon as she fell to sleep.

Carly smiled now as Jason entered the hotel lobby and remembered back to the best one of those conversations.

_April, 2008_

_They sat on his couch. Her feet were bent over his lap, resting on the other side of his legs. She was propped up by pillows._

_Though Carly was one week out of the hospital Jason was still babying her. And she really loved that._

"_Tell me about Valentine's Day," she ordered_

_He rolled his eyes and then tickled her feet, trying to distract her._

_Carly laughed and said "Talk!"_

"_Aren't you sick of these stories yet?"_

"_Never."_

_Carly was shocked when she learned he had kept a journal during her time in the hospital. The first few weeks of entries were sketchy, because he had to go back and fill that in, but after that it was quite detailed. _

_It was similar to what he did when Micheal was a newborn. Jason had taken a photo everyday Carly couldn't be with her son. He captured the memory she would never have and gave it back to her._

"_All right then," he said now "Valentine's Day. Lets see."_

_Jason grabbed the journal off the coffee table and flipped through it. He kept it locked up with his gun when he wasn't home. He would have burned it by now but Carly absolutely would not allow that._

"_Oh yeah," Jason said, smiling, "Brenda came home that day."_

"_Oh geez! I know I had to be thrilled to see her. At least she brought Johnny back to us and L. J."_

_Carly had taken to calling Brenda and Johnny's daughter that for a nickname. It stood for Little Jase._

"_It was one of the better days in all those bad days," Jason told her._

_She saw a hint of pain creep into his eyes. Carly sobered. "I wish I could have given you a great Valentine's day."_

_He said, "You did. You were there, hanging on, staying strong. Being my best friend."_

"_So what does it say we talked about?" Carly asked, leaning forward to try and peek at the journal. Jason had never let her even touch it. So, of course, that is all she wanted to do. _

_Jason hadn't yet had to tell her about his professions of love for her. But this entry had it all in black and white. He knew he had to spill the whole truth or start lying to her. Because the rest of the journal was filled with many, many more pages detailing his desperation to cure her and his realization that he was as in love with Carly as he had ever been._

_Jason stared at the words on the page and then finally said "You asked me if we were married. And I had to tell you no."_

_Carly laughed. "Man, that is embarrassing. Did I wake up everyday thinking we were still together?"_

"_Not everyday," Jason smiled slightly "But a lot of them."_

"_So what did you do? Did you ever just play along?"_

"_Couldn't do it."_

"_Damn. I was hoping some of those pages in that book of yours were filled with hot hot..."_

"_Carly..." her name was a warned whisper._

"_Sex scenes where you..."_

"_Carly!"_

"_What?" she teased._

"_Do you want to know what happened next?" Jason's heart was pounding. _

_She moved her feet to the floor and scooted close to him. Nearly in his ear, she said happily, "I love this journal."_

"_I know."_

"_Thank you, Jase."_

"_Anytime."_

"_So, what else happened that day?" Carly asked, smiling. _

_He turned his head until they were eye to eye. Jason let out a breath._

"_I told you I was in love with you." his words were soft but intense and stole her breath away._

_Carly's mouth opened slightly._

_Jason said, "And on that day I went down to the chapel and made a deal with God. If he would make you whole again, and give you back your life, give you back to me, then I would love you the way you want. The way I want to. I would love you right."_

_She was shaking when she intertwined her fingers with him. "You did it again, Jase, you saved me."_

"_No, Carly, you are the one who saved me. Way back at Jake's. Didn't you ever figure that out?"_

(From this moment, as long as I live,

I will love you, I promise you this.

There is nothing I wouldn't give  
From this moment on )

_Carly didn't move to kiss him, instead she waited, just looking in his eyes at all the love he had stopped trying to hide. And then Jason smiled, and made her know it was all going to work out now._

_His lips inched toward hers and Carly finally started to feel like her old self again. The person she was the last time she felt truly safe, happy and complete all at the same time- that glorious but brief time years before when Jason was in love with her._

_The moment his lips touched hers, heat flooded Carly's body down to her core, and forever started all over again._

**2009 **

Jason walked the last few steps across the hotel lobby, smiling as he got nearer and nearer to her. Her eyes took in his tux.

"Is that new?" she asked

He sighed, "The cleaners shrunk mine. I had to actually stop and buy a new one on the way here. Or I could have came in jeans. But I didn't think you would appreciate that."

"Smart thinking," Carly gave him an easy grin as their eyes locked.

Her arms wrapped around his neck, ignoring all the other people in the hotel lobby, and her mouth sought out his.

After a soft kiss, Jason whispered "Lets skip going to this wedding and go straight upstairs to our suite."

"Not gonna happen. First the wedding, then we have all night long for our own private celebration." She smiled "This is going to be our best Valentine's Day ever, Jason. You are going to dance with me..."

"I don't think so..." he muttered

"Oh yes you are. Because you promised me nothing but good times from now on."

"Oh, I did that, didn't I?"

"You so did, Jase." She moved from his arms. "We're late. We better hurry."

Grabbing her hand, Jason tugged Carly into the nearby stairwell.

"Let them start without us," Jason ordered.

His lips touched hers again, sending bolts of lightening like shockwaves through her. _Damn, I love the way this man kisses_, Carly thought.

"I love you" he whispered into her ear as his body trapped her against the wall. She arched into him, wanting to feel every inch of him. " love you, love you, love you..."

"And I love you," she said right before their mouths merged together again.

He was the keeper of her heart, and her three missing months of memories. She was the keeper of his very soul, and the one who gave him children to love, a place to call home, and night after night of kisses so intense his body became addicted to the pursuit of getting more and more and more of them.

Nothing would ever be enough as far as they were concerned.

Jason moaned as her hand slid over him, "Just five minutes in the suite, babe, please."

"Five minutes!" Carly said smiling, and knowing five minutes would just be the start. "And you think up the excuse for why we are late."

She hurried out of the stairwell and to the elevator. As soon as they were inside his lips were on hers again.

Carly melted into his kiss and thought, _I want to marry this man._

In his pocket, resting snugly in a little velvet jewelry box, sat the ring that symbolized his commitment to wanting the very same thing.

_(You're the reason I believe in love  
And you're the answer to my prayers from up above  
All we need is just the two of us  
My dreams came true because of you..._

_I will love you as long as I live _

_  
From this moment on )_


	12. 2009 Milo and Lulu

**MILO AND LULU- 2009**

She loved the way he looked in his tux. Her eyes moved over him as he stood at the bar.

_God, he's the best thing that ever happened to me_, Lulu thought

And yet, at this moment, she was terrified to tell him the truth.

This was the first time Lulu ever hesitated about being honest with Milo. But it was also the first time she feared her honesty could destroy them.

Her eyes drifted down to her hand and over the ring he placed there exactly one year before. A promise ring. She had his promise. Would that be enough to save them?

Milo handed her a glass of champagne.

"I can't drink that," she said, pushing it back into his hand.

"No one cares that you're not twenty-one tonight. It's a wedding, sweetie. Enjoy yourself."

Lulu forced a smile on her lips. She didn't want to tell him tonight. It was Valentine's Day, maybe their last one together and she only wanted to remember it as a wonderful evening spent loving him.

Tomorrow was soon enough to deal with the rest.

She took both glasses from his hand and placed them on a nearby table.

"Dance with me," she said softly

Milo took her hand and led her out on the floor. "Did I tell you I love this dress you are wearing?" his words were low and spoken close to her ear.

"Yes, about twenty times already," she said with a smile.

"I love it," he repeated. The tone of his words sent shivers up and down her spine. "How soon do you think we can sneak out of here?"

"I think we have to stay till the end," Lulu told him as they moved around the dance floor.

She would like nothing better than to be at his place, naked beneath the sheets with Milo showing her over and over how much he adored her. It was certainly her favorite thing on earth these days.

_(I live only for your happiness _

_  
And for your love_

_I'd give my last breath _

_From this moment on )_

She smiled as she thought about the way his hands felt, so large and strong, as they ran over her bare skin.

Milo saw the look in her eyes and growled, "I really don't think I can wait."

His lips captured hers in a kiss full of passion, commitment and unending love. Lulu pulled away with tears in her eyes.

She brought her hand up to touch his cheek, "Happy Valentine's Day, Milo."

"We could be the ones getting married this time next year, sweetie." His tender words made her ache, because she feared that would never happen now.

Lulu took a step back and out of his arms. "I need some air."

"I'll go with you."

"No!" Lulu took a breath and then said more calmly "Please, I need a few minutes alone..."

She hurried off.

Milo waited five minutes and then followed her outside. The snow was falling, in delicate flakes that left a light coating on the sidewalk.

"What's the matter?" he asked

She looked away, hoping he wouldn't see her tears.

"Talk to me, Lulu." Milo gently touched her back. "Are you okay?"

She sucked in a breath. "I'm not okay. I'm pregnant."

Milo's mouth dropped. She turned and looked at him. Her expression was heartbroken.

"All right..." he said slowly "This was not exactly planned but I think it's great news, sweetie. I know you still have some more school to get through but you can go back once the baby is a little older. Or I can stay home while you are in college. We will figure something out. This will work out."

"No, Milo, I'm afraid it won't."

He froze. Barely moving his lips he asked, "Why?"

"I was shocked when I realized I was pregnant but I wasn't devastated like the first time this happened to me. I'm different now, older and I like myself better, I know myself better. I'm not just a high school kid now. For the first five minutes after I took the test I was terrified... and then I got really happy...because" she touched her stomach "this is our baby and I know I can raise him or her. But I was still holding the test when it hit me..."

Her eyes held his and he could see fear and pain staring back at him. "What?"

"I can't raise a child in your lifestyle." Lulu said slowly, and then her words started to rush out "I know I said I could deal with what you do. I know I put us in this mess. I said I could handle it. And I could. I can! But I won't do that to my child. I didn't know I would feel this way until the moment I did. I'm so sorry, Milo. I don't expect you to quit your job. I can do this on my own." She squeezed her eyes closed, trying to stop the tears.

His words were low and calm when he said, "I'll quit."

Her eyes flew open. "Are you sure? I don't want to force you to change your whole life."

"You're my whole life." Milo took her into his arms. "And now this baby is the most important thing in my world. There are other jobs. I want you. I want to make a family with you, Lulu."

She smiled. "Really?"

"Don't doubt me. You gotta know how crazy I am for you..." his lips touched hers.

Snow covered her hair now. Milo said "Lets get you back inside. You aren't dressed to be out here."

In the lobby she stopped and asked him, "You're not upset about this change of plan? Neither of us wanted this to happen so soon."

"But I did want it to happen one day. And, so, yeah... I am surprised that day is today. But it's a good surprise. You just gave me one hell of a Valentine's Day gift, Lulu."

Smiling she moved into his arms, "You amaze me. I thought you would hate me for asking you to walk away from your work."

"I'd walk away from everything I have in this world...for the chance to be with you."

"Good to know. Because so would I for you." And when she kissed him, Milo believed that was true.

(_From this moment I have been blessed _

_  
I live only for your happiness _

_  
And for your love I'd give my last breath _

_  
From this moment on _) ( Shania Twain)


	13. 2009 Lucky and Sam

This chapter is for Zendall10, who wanted to see more of this couples story.

Valentine's Day 2009- Lucky and Sam

11:20 PM

He was working late- again. She was home alone. Sam tried not to be upset about it. Lucky would make it up to her, he always did.

But it was just today, of all days, she really needed him to be home. She needed his well muscled arms to wrap around her and take away her pain, like only her husband could.

And not just because it was Valentine's Day. Though, she hated to spend that away from him. It was their day, the anniversary of when they first became best friends two years before, and the anniversary of when they first made love. Six months later they were married, and two months after that they started trying to adopt.

The paperwork was done and now they were waiting for the call from the social worker saying a baby, their baby, was on the way. But, for the last few days, Sam's mind had been on another baby. The one she hoped she was carrying.

She knew it was silly to even take the home pregnancy test, yet she kept doing it month after month. Just in case.

This time it was positive.

_**9 AM**_

_Dr. Lee stepped back into the examination room. From the look on her face, Sam can tell what she will say._

"_But the test said positive," Sam managed to squeak out._ _"Two pink lines. That means pregnant. I'm pregnant."_

"_I'm sorry but, no, you're not. A false positive is rare but it does happen."_

"_Oh." The one word is the sound of a dream dying._

"_Sam, I know you are disappointed but it is for the best. You wouldn't be able to carry the baby to term and you should, actually, be taking precautions to avoid a pregnancy."_

_She knew all that, but hated hearing it. Hating knowing it. Hated not being pregnant_.

_Sam left General Hospital and went straight to the police station. "Hey, Cruz, seen my hubby?"_

"_He's just took a prisoner down to lock-up. Why don't you wait in the interrogation room for him. I'll send him your way when he gets back up here."_

_As soon as Lucky walked into the interrogation room, ten minutes later, he knew something was wrong with his wife. The moment she looked at him, her face crumbled into a broken hearted expression and the tears filled her eyes._

_She hadn't cried in months, so the sight of her breaking down now clutched at his heart. "Baby, come here."_

_She flew into his arms, he smoothed her hair, and whispered "It's okay. Whatever it is I will make it okay for you."_

_That only made her cry harder. _

"_Tell me," Lucky said._

_Sam pushed away from him. "I let you down." Her words were filled with self hatred._

"_Never."_

"_I thought...but I am not...of course...again."_

_Then he knew what she was referring to. Softly, he said "I'm sorry."_

"_Me too."_

_He said, with conviction in his voice,"In time you will hold a baby in your arms. You believe in that still, right? Just as much as I do."_

_Sam wanted to believe, but only when she was looking in his eyes did the dream seem like it had any chance of coming true. He was the who gave her the courage to hope, always had been._

**11:50 PM**

Lucky was speeding home in his squad car, the lights and sirens wailing. If Mac found out he did that in a non- emergency situation Lucky would find himself back on the commissioner's bad side. But it was worth the risk to get home to his wife, before midnight.

Valentine's Day was their day. Just when everything had being going to hell, two years before, they ran into each other on the docks and decided not to wallow in self pity alone anymore. _Misery loves company_... and in time Lucky loved Sam, in a way that was deeper than he had known before. Because they were like two survivors of a natural disaster, the Jason and Liz baby debacle- as deadly and heartbreaking as the one and only hurricane that ever blew through Port Charles. But it didn't ruin Lucky or Sam, instead it freed them.

He smiled now, as he thought about what they were doing at this time last year.

_Valentine's 2008_

"_I'm in love with you," he said_

_Sam gasped._

_Lucky added, "Surprise."_

_(I give my hand to you with all my heart._

_  
I can't wait to live my life with you._

_I can't wait to start._

_  
You and I will never be apart  
My dreams came true because of you )_

He loved the way her face had lit up at his words, the soft chuckle that came a moment later, releasing all her worries and fears. For months after that there was only smiles, laughs, and night after night of feeling her bare skin against his own.

Lucky pulled the squad car to a screeching halt at the curb of his house. He flew through the door at 11:55 pm.

"Five minutes to spare!" he called out playfully. "Sam? Baby, where are you?"

Lucky wandered through the house, noting the romantic music that drifted out of the stereo system and the roaring fire burning in the fireplace.

He found her in bed, her eyes closed. She wore one of his t-shirts. He peeled off his clothes and crawled into the bed. As soon as he leaned over to kiss her forehead, Sam's eyes popped open and she snaked her arms around his neck.

She whispered sexily, "Happy Valentine's Day, honey. I heard the sirens and figured you were on your way. Didn't Mac tell you to never do that again?"

He kissed her instead of answering. His mouth hungrily moved over hers, causing her to moan and run her nails down his back.

Her shirt came off, tossed over his head to land somewhere unknown. He was moving his mouth down her body when the phone rang.

"No, you can not go back to work, Lucky Spencer. Keep doing what you are doing."

He smiled. "Just check the caller ID and make sure it isn't a family emergency."

Sam sighed and grabbed the phone. It rang again. "Hello?"

Lucky saw his wife's body go still, and knew something life changing was being said into her ear. He moved back up the bed and scooted close to her.

"I understand. Yes, yes...okay, we are on our way," Sam said.

When she hung up, she looked at her husband for a long moment.

"Whatever it is, we'll get through it together," Lucky said.

"That was the social worker. There's a baby... a little girl..she was promised to another couple but it fell through.. .and she is being sent home from the hospital tonight... like right now...by midnight..something about insurance...I don't know...but, Lucky, she's ours. Our daughter is waiting for us. We have to get to General Hospital."

She kissed him, fast and hard, then jumped out of bed to find clothes. "We're getting another kid. Cam will be so excited. Don't you think? Another baby sister for him. And a daughter for us, me and you Lucky..._our baby_."

She was yanking on jeans when she looked up and saw the tears in his eyes. Sam slid them on, and the still shirtless, walked over to the side of the bed and took him into her arms.

"I know, Lucky, I know."

Her lips went to his, giving him all her love, her heart, her future, and taking in his joy and relief.

XXXXXXX

They went into the nursery with the nurse. "This is your daughter. A beauty, huh?"

She had dark hair and blue eyes. A stunner. Lucky's heart was gone from the first second. Sam would have to share his devotion with this little one from now on, just like she had to with Cameron from the start.

They were a blended family, oh so modern and new millennium. But they were steeped in something very old world, they had been brought together by the hand of fate, and the grace of god.

"Can I hold her?" Sam asked.

"Go ahead," the nurse said with an easy smile. "You are her mama after all."

Sam cradled the infant in her arms, while Lucky stood with his arm around his wife's waist.

"Hello, my baby girl," Lucky said "Happy Valentine's Day."

Sam whispered, tearily, "Oh my god, honey, I love her. I love her already."

"Me too."

It was past midnight now, but she would always be considered her parents best Valentine's Day present ever.

(_From this moment as long as I live  
I will love you, I promise you this _

_  
There is nothing I wouldn't give _

_  
From this moment on _

_  
I will love you as long as I live From this moment on _) ( Shania Twain)


	14. 2009 Cooper and Maxie

**Valentine's Day 2009- Three and Maxie.**

**10 am**

They had never gotten married. That fact stabbed like a knife into Cooper's gut now. He really had wanted to make her his wife.

For a short time they had it good, so damn good. Better than a man like him deserved. But now he sat in the police squad car with his forehead pressed to the window staring at his girlfriend and child standing on the curb, and then the Boston city patrol cop hit the gas and they were pulling away, leaving behind Maxie and C. J.

Leaving behind everything he ever loved in the world.

XXXXXXXXX

**Maxie kissed **her son's head, "I will get your Daddy back. I promise you, baby."

Then she walked inside, put him in his playpen, and picked up the phone.

While it rang she thought about the day Cooper had asked her to marry him.

_JULY 2007_

_Maxie held her hands over her face. She was sitting on the counter in the bathroom of their apartment._

"_I can't look. What does it say, Coop?" _

_He picked up the white stick. "It looks sort of aqua."_

_She spread her fingers and peeked out. "Aqua? Let me see."_

_She looked at the pregnancy test and shrieked. "Blue! Oh my good God, it is blue. You knocked me up!"_

_Two months into their relationship and they were in a family way. Maxie certainly did everything in her life to the extreme._

"_Congrats," Cooper said, giving her one of his trademark sexy smiles._

"_Congrats?" she asked. Her mouth dropped. "What does that mean? Are we happy about this?"_

"_Why wouldn't we be? So what that we are living under assumed names and that I make my money in a less than completely...totally...absolutely legal way...and so what that this apartment is not too many levels above rat trap. So what? Hey, don't give me that look that says you think I am crazy."_

"_No, I know you are crazy!"_

_He scooted close to her, standing between her legs as she sat on the counter._

_Softly he said, "I love you, Jones."_

"_Three...come on..." her words were soft, but held a note of warning. She was afraid of becoming a mom, of loving too much, of all that was happening so fast. "You know it is about more than how we feel about each other..."_

"_So you don't love me?"_

_She looked into his eyes for a long moment. There was no doubt what her heart felt. "I love you."_

"_And you will be a wonderful mother to our kid."_

"_I'm not fit to be no one's mama."_

_He put his hand over her stomach. "Well, you are."_

"_Oh, Cooper, what did we do?"_

_He took her into his arms. In her ear he whispered, "You know you gotta marry me now, right?"_

_Maxie loved the way his breath brushed over her ear, his words seared into her heart._

_She yanked her head back and meet his eyes. "Don't feel obligated."_

_He kissed her then, showing her every inch of the desire he felt for her._

"_I love you. I will say it every day from now on just to make sure you believe it is the God's honest truth," Cooper said. He lifted her hand and placed it over his heart. "I'm a thief but you stole this. You got my heart, Maxie. And I won't let you give it back. I want you to be my wife. Will you marry me?"_

**Valentine's 2009**

**When the man answered **the phone, Maxie froze.

A lump formed in her throat and she choked out, "Dad." She usually called him Mac but right now, after two years being gone, with tears in her eyes, he was simply Dad.

"Maxie! Sweetie...where are you?"

"I need your help." She gripped the phone tighter. "Will you come and help me, Dad, please?"

XXXXXXXX

**10:30 am**

The cop looked at Cooper with disgust. "You thought you got away with it, huh? Well, Logan had to flip on someone to cut his deal and you were all he had. You got anyone _you _want to tell me about to make this go a little easier on yourself?"

"No."

"But you do admit you went by the alais Three and were part of the crew who robbed The Metro Court Hotel in Port Charles, New York in February of 2007?"

"I don't know what you are talking about."

XXXXXXXXXX

**4 pm**

Maxie heard the knock on the door, and her eyes moved straight to her son. She knew she should have told Mac on the phone that she had a child but then she started crying too hard to say much of anything but her address and that he needed to come as soon as he could, right away, now, and save her.

She opened the door and saw her sister first. Georgie's smile was huge, her arms opened and they hugged.

"I missed you," they said at the same time.

Then Georgie moved past her and inside, her mouth dropped at the sight of the one year old blond boy in the playpen.

Mac had his eyes glued to Maxie. "Don't do that again."

"Was Mom upset?" her voice was small and unsure.

"Inconsolable. We all went a little crazy when you disappeared." He pulled her into a hug, squeezing tightly.

Maxie swiped at her tears when he let go and then stepped aside. His eyes moved around the room and landed on his grandson.

Georgie crouched next to the child and said, "I think I am your aunt and you're my nephew, kid. You're mom always did like to keep secrets from me."

Georgie looked at her sister, "What did you name him?"

"Cooper James Barret."

"He's beautiful, Maxie," Mac said, his eyes slightly teary.

"You aren't..." she looked down and mumbled "ashamed of me or anything?"

He lifted her chin. "No."

XXXXXXXXX

**5:15 pm**

Mac stepped into the interrogation room at the police department. His eyes studied the young man sitting handcuffed to the table.

"I'm Commissioner Scorpio from-"

"I know who you are, sir. Let me start my saying I'm sorry for any pain I caused you and your family by taking Maxie away from home. It was a selfish thing to do, but I didn't know exactly how selfish before I became a father myself. That daughter of yours is amazing. She loves you and missed you and wanted to go back. Though she never said so aloud. She wouldn't marry me, kept putting it off and saying she was searching for the right dress or shoes or waiting for certain flowers to be in season, but the truth was...she wanted you to walk her down the aisle. Don't blame her for any of this. All she did was love me."

Mac was floored by the impassioned statements. "If you want to make it up to me, never take my daughter away from Port Charles again. Boston may be nice but it isn't her home."

"I won't be taking her anywhere for years now. Please take good care of her...and my boy...when I can't."

"I'm having you transferred in PCPD custody and transporting you personally back to New York. The crime you are suspected of took place in my jurisdiction and the investigation into your possible involvement will take place there too."

XXXXXXXXXXX

**6:30 pm**

Cooper was handcuffed and placed in the back of Mac's car. They drove to the home he shared with Maxie in silence.

Maxie ran out the front door the moment they pulled into the driveway. Georgie stood on the porch, holding C. J.

The baby was bundled up in a snowsuit.

Maxie flung open the car door and bent down to cradle his face, giving him a quick kiss. "Coop, baby, you're back."

Her eyes moved to the handcuffs and then back to his.

Cooper whispered, "I'm sorry this happened."

She put her mouth by his ear and whispered, "We'll make it right. I love you."

Then she straightened and turned to her father, who now stood in the driveway.

"What do we do now?"

Mac answered, "Pack a suitcase. We are heading home."

XXXXXXXXX

**9:45 pm**

The whole way back, Mac sat and listened to maxie telling her sister about life in Boston. It was very clear his little girl was amazingly happy with Cooper and her son.

The only pain he heard in her voice was when Georgie asked, "So you two have been engaged for a year and a half? What's the hold up?"

"We wanted..." Maxie said quietly " the ceremony to be perfect...we'll do it soon, believe me. Right, Coop?"

He nodded, his eyes filled with love for her and his own fears of not being able to keep his promise and become her husband.

Mac pulled off the expressway to refuel the car, after paying the clerk inside, he ducked into the bathroom and made a few phone calls.

XXXXXXX

**11: 30 pm**

"Why are we stopping here?" asked Maxie as they pulled into St. Timothy's church in Port Charles.

"You are overdue a wedding, I would say," Mac answered. He turned and looked at her in the backseat with Cooper, the baby's car seat squeezed in next to them. " Now, I know you said you wanted perfection... and I certainly expect to have no expense spared at your second ceremony. But tonight I think you should say your vows to that man you love and not wait even one more night."

"Daddy..."

"I arranged everything with the priest already. But don't feel like you have to go through with it if you aren't completely sure."

"I am 1 million percent sure," Maxie said as she turned and caught Cooper's eyes.

"I thought so," Mac answered.

They all got out of the car. Maxie's eyes moved around the parking lot, taking in the fact that there were over ten cars parked there.

Georgie took C. J. into the church. Mac unlocked Cooper's handcuffs.

He leaned close to him and whispered, "You do right by her."

Then Mac said, "I'll give you two a few minutes alone. I'll be waiting inside to walk you down the aisle, Maxie."

"This is ...you didn't have to do all this," she said. "Thank you."

"Of course, I did. You're my daughter."

When Mac had walked away, Maxie went into Cooper's arms.

He said, "God, I thought I wasn't going to be able to hold you again for years."

"Mac will help you get out of the charges. I don't know how but he will. Trust him, okay? I didn't know for sure...I hoped...I didn't know if he would love me more than he hated you for what you did and taking me away...but he does. He's been the best dad, Coop, really and he will come through for us."

"Whatever happens I want you to be my wife," he said. "You're the only woman who I could never walk away from...I would lose my mind if I lost your love...you light up my world, Maxie Jones. Everything about you is precious to me. They way you pout when you don't get your way. The way you are obsessed with shoes. The way you wake me up when you have nightmares and you think I can save you somehow..."

"You did save me. You loved me and that saved me," she said.

"It's amazing you still think that."

"And I always will, Cooper. Now are you ready to marry me?"

In a throaty whisper, he told her, "Baby, I have been ready." Then his lips crushed into hers, sparking the fire that raged between them every time they made love.

She eased away and said, "Save something for the honeymoon, will you?"

He chuckled, took her hand and walked into the church.

XXXXXXX

**11:52 pm**

Maxie stood next to her father in the back of the church, wearing the only dress she packed. It was red, shimmery, with spaghetti straps. She held a bouquet Bobbie had bought.

The rest of the guests were inside the sanctuary already.

Bobbie said, "You look beautiful."

"Yeah, for not wearing white."

"You have never been traditional. You're better than that. You are an original ballsy babe. And I wouldn't want you any other way," Bobbie said, causing her to smile.

They both knew that this day, somewhere nearby, an angel was watching over them, sharing this moment as she had many before and would all the milestones after.

Bobbie kissed her cheek then slipped inside.

Maxie slid her arm around Mac's.

He asked, "This is it. My second girl gets married."

Maxie tried to hold back the tears as she said the same words she wrote to him in her good bye letter, "It goes without saying, but I will anyway, I love you."

"And I am honored to be your dad."

XXXXXXXXXXX

**Midnight**

Maxie was just about to leave go of Mac's arm, as she got to the end of the aisle, when her eyes took in the first pew.

Felicia held little Cooper James.

Maxie sucked in a breath. Mac whispered into her ear, "She wanted to surprise you. She moved back right after you left."

Felicia mouthed, "I love you, my girl."

Maxie could only nod back at her, nearly overcome with emotion.

The other guests included: Robin, Patrick, Lucas, Guy, Dillon, Brooklyn, Ned, Lucy Coe, Kevin, Serena and Christina Baldwin.

Cooper took her hand as the priest started the ceremony.

She felt no fear because he was holding her steady, and his love kept her strong through the best and worst of times.

XXXXXXX

**12:15 am**

"You may now kiss the bride."

Cooper leaned over and tenderly brought his lips to hers, their happy tears mixing together. He spoke so softly that only she could hear, "I love you, Mrs. Barret."

"Love you, forever, Three."

XXXXXXXX

**12:30 am**

"Mom, this is Cooper."

"I can't believe I am meeting the man my daughter loves after they are married," Felicia said in awe. "It is good to get this chance, though. I missed too much in her life already. I thank God I was here for this."

Maxie let out a shaky breath. It would take time to trust her Mom wasn't going to leave town again. But she would have faith, like she hoped Mac and Georgie would have faith in her to stay now.

Cooper said, "It's good to meet you, too, Ms. Jones."

"Oh, it's Scorpio now."

Maxie squealed happily. Then cried, "No one tells me anything!"

XXXXXXXX

**1 am**

Everyone was crowded in the lobby of the church when Cruz Rodriguez walked in.

A hush fell over the crowd.

Cruz said, "Lansing sent me down here to get the prisoner. Sorry for having to do this, boss."

"There is no prisoner here," Mac said.

"I heard Boston PD picked up Three."

"They thought they had. They were mistaken," Mac said in a no nonsense tone. "This is Cooper Barret, my daughter's new husband. The guy who fingered him as Three had no credibility and as police chief I have the choice to discount his statement. I'm doing that. We didn't find Three, Cruz. He's probably dead."

"I see," Cruz said. He walked over and shook Cooper's hand. "Congratulations." He smiled at Maxie. "Welcome home."

"It's good to be home," she said.

XXXXXXXX

**4:15 am**

They took a room at the Metro Court, right back where it al began.

Late that night, as they lay in bed together, Maxie said "I finally got you hitched to me."

"You got me? I was trying to get you for over a year now."

"Oh, right, I seem to remember something about that. There was begging involved right? Down on your hands and knees pleading for the chance to get to spend every day as my servant..."

"You are such a snarky girl, Jones."

"Barret."

"Barret," he agreed the kissed her, meaning for it to be slow and sweet, but between them nothing ever was.

They were fast, hot, wild and out of control. She straddled him and the ride that started in the middle of one crazy night at The Metro Court took a new twist, another turn, but they didn't fall down. Holding on to each other, they just rose higher and higher.

"Oh, I love Valentines Day," she moaned

He answered, "And, baby, I love you..."

(_There is nothing I wouldn't give  
from this moment on _

_  
I will love you as long as I live  
from this moment on ) ( Shania Twain)_


	15. 2009 Stan and Lainey

_AN- Hello everyone. I thought I might try my hand at writing Lainey and Stan. Let me know what you think. _

_Valentine's 2009_

The moment he stepped out of his car, Lainey knew she had been set-up. Sitting in her own broken down vehicle on the side of the road, with the snow rapidly falling down onto her windshield and blotting out the world, she watched him in the rearview as he moved closer.

When she called the nurse's station and asked Epiphany to page Kelly, she had been suspicious of the excuse the head nurse gave. Lainey had left work ten minutes before and Kelly hadn't had any patients in labor then.

Epiphany promised to send out Patrick, who was just getting done with his shift.

But instead Epiphany sent her son. Lainey's ex- boyfriend. The only guy she ever gave her whole heart to, the only guy she ever pictured having kids with, and the one guy Lainey now couldn't stand to lay eyes on because of all he was- gorgeous from his light eyes to his well defined abs, sweet underneath all his rage against The Man mentality, and loyal to the end to everyone but her- and all he wasn't anymore.

The future they had once been so sure they would spend together was never going to happen now.

Tears brushed at the back of her eyes at the thought of what their kids would have looked like, the kids that would never be born now.

Stan tapped on her window. Lainey's hand shot out and locked the door.

"Fine." he snapped "Have it your way."

Stan started to head back to his car.

_Oh no, he didn't_! she silently cried. _He could have at least begged._

But he wasn't the type. He didn't ever bend to her will, though she never gave up on trying to make him. They had been that way from the start.

2007

_"Just admit you did this whole thing on purpose," Lainey told him. Her dark eyes bore into him, shooting daggers._

_They were trapped in a closet at the hospital._

_She couldn't take a breath without smelling his cologne. It was hard to ignore the flutters dancing through her stomach but she would. Because Stan Johnson was not the type of guy you fall for. He might be a computer genius with a body that could sell calendars but he was also a criminal. And, more times than not, rude to her._

_Yet, Lainey had also caught him checking her out and by the smile he wore, when he didn't think she was looking, he liked what he saw._

_Lainey said, "You followed me in here and did something to jam the door."_

_Stan realized he had been hoodwinked. __His mother had asked him to grab some gauze for her. He should have suspected in was part of another one of her schemes to push him together with this sexy, but sharp tongued, shrink. Stan jerked on the door, trying to get it open."Give me a break, Fidel, as if I would bother."_

_She made a sound that was equal parts shock and offense._

_"What did you just call me?"_

_"Fi-del," he said slowly "As in Castro. The dictator that oppresses all who are unfortunate enough to come in contact with him."_

_"You think I do that?"_

_He beat the door in frustration. "I think you give it a hell of a try. You like control, baby. And when you can't get it you go a little nuts."_

_She started to poke him in the back. "First, don't call me baby. Second, I do not need to be in control. Though being in control is not a bad thing. Third," she jabbed him even harder "nuts is an offensive term that places people who are in a fragile mental state in a derogatory light. Fourth, you have some god dang nerve talking to me like I am some around the way girl you met down on Front Street. Fifth..."_

_He spun around and grabbed her wrist. "Exactly how long is this list?"_

_She swallowed. They were in the dark, without anywhere for her to move away from him. He smelled like leather and fire, and it ws driving her to distraction._

_Lainey's fingers longed to grab his shirt and bury her hands in the fabric, while her mouth sought his lips._

_Instead, she yanked her wrist out of his hold and stumbled one step backwards. She ran into the supply shelf._

_Lainey hissed out, in a low tone filled with desire, "Don't touch me."_

_Stan heard the way her breath was now coming in short little gasps and stepped closer. "Why? Can't you resist a little temptation?"_

_"You don't tempt me."_

_His hand raised and she wondered, as it moved through the darkness, where it would land. Would he brush back a strand of her hair? Caress her face? Run his fingers over her waistband, would he work down or up then?_

_She shivered as his hand landed on the shelf and he leaned forward._

_"I think you want me, Lainey." His voice was deep, intimate, too personal for her to handle. "You want to know what it would be like, us, would it be good? But you know it would be. And you know you don't want go there because I'm not someone you can tame. And you have to be in control or else...what would you do?"_

_His other hand slid up the side of her skirt. Her mouth opened._Oh God, _she thought as he brushed over her breast_, yes, don't stop...,

_Stan whispered, "Why do you think I haven't asked you out? Because you already look down on me...and you don't even know what we could be.."_

_His barely there touch was making her crave more. Lainey ground out, "Admit you caused us to get trapped."_

_Stan smiled, knowing he was driving her wild, and kept silent._

_"Admit it," she moaned._

_Lainey hated that he was so stubborn, so wrong for her- a man who didn't even have enough sense to stay away from the gangsters in town. But she loved how he made her feel- how his eyes caused her to lose her train of thought, how his hands could set her on fire without even taking her clothes off._

_"Stan..." she needed to feel his mouth on hers. But she wanted him to confess first. "Just tell me..."_

_He kissed her neck, his lips just brushing over her skin quickly, and she arched into him._

_Lainey gave up the battle then, but not the war. With frantic movements her hands clutched at him, till he could get no closer, and then she kissed him, not holding back a thing._

_In that moment, the calm, cool and collected doctor said to hell with it and took what she wanted, needed, and could not go another second without. Him._

_**2009**_

**Lainey could not believe** that this damn bastard was climbing back in his SUV and leaving her on the side of the road. She jumped out of her car and stalked over to his. It was parked behind her on the country road. The snow covered her hair by the time she made it to his window.

Her hand pounded against it. He rolled it down. Stan smirked at her, "Change your mind? Ready to accept some help from me?"

"You left me!"

"I'm right here," Stan argued.

"You left me," she repeated, this time talking about when they broke up. Her features were hard, but her eyes were heartbroken. "You give up so damn easily."

Stan stared at her for a long minute. His eyes changed from teasing to just as sad as hers. Softly he said, "Get in, Lainey."

She stomped around the car and got in the passenger side.

Her arms crossed over her chest as she sat next to him. "Take me home. I'll call the auto club for the car."

"Giving orders again, huh? Like when you told me to quit my job and go back to school?"

She gave him a annoyed look. "I should have known better than to think you would do the sensible thing. I mean you like doing the exact thing that will mess up your whole life..."

"Like when I fell in love with you?" he asked "Or when I let you break my heart. Yeah, your right, I don't make very good choices."

Tears filled her eyes. "You could have just quit that damn job! You could have chosen me. I guess your love had limits, huh? Not as unconditional as you claimed, Stan?"

He leaned close to her and hissed "No, that was you who couldn't love me no matter what."

She turned her head and they were eye-to-eye, he was right there, only an inch away, her love, and the only one who could make her feel this weak. "Oh, really? Cause I still love you...not like it does me any good though...cause you won't do what is best for me...for us..." the image of the children she wanted desperately came to her mind " for what our future could have been. You do what is best for you, only you! You don't love me, Stan! You can't!"

His mouth crashed into hers. At first it was a battle for control and then it softened into something sweeter, something they had both been missing since their break up.

Barely above a whisper, Stan told her "I do love you. Stop doubting me and stop pushing me away. You can't do it all alone. And you can't decide everything. Let me love you, Lainey."

In a tear choked voice she asked, " Are you going to quit your job?"

He smiled. "Please, Fidel, stop bossing me."

She smiled. "Don't call me that. You know I hate that nickname."

He stroked her cheek. "Fine. Whatever you want, okay?"

"What?"

Stan sighed. "You broke me, woman. After two years of relentless lecturing and three months of completely ignoring me, of taking away your love, the one thing I need most, after all that...you win. I'll quit."

Every worry she had melted away. "You don't have to."

He stilled. "Then what was this all about?"

"Well, I wanted you to," she said in a giddy voice "And I still do. Because you are better than some street hood but now that I know you will...well, I don't want to force you. Do what you think is best."

He groaned and pulled her closer. In a throaty voice he grumbled, "You are going to drive me crazy."

She reveled in the way it felt to have his body pressed to hers again.

Lainey said silently, _He's back...he's mine again...oh my God, I thought I lost him forever..._

"I love you, Stan," she knew her voice was breaking but she didn't care if he knew how much she had missed him. Maybe if she let him know that, finally, he would think twice about ever walking away again.

His lips caught hers in a kiss filled with every bit of his heart. "I'll love you till the end of my life, Lainey."

"And then for the rest of eternity," she added.

"Giving orders about how to love you!" he said with a smile "What am I going to do with you?"

His hands slipped under her skirt and Lainey started to get a pretty good idea about what he wanted to do to her, with her, and that he would love her just as long as she wanted. And that was for forever.

(_From this moment as long as I live  
I will love you, I promise you this  
There is nothing I wouldn't give  
From this moment  
I will love you as long as I live  
From this moment on) ( Shania Twain)_


	16. 2009 Patrick and Robin

_AN- I wasn't sure I would write more Scrubs but several of the reviews mentioned loving this couple. I do too but I am not the most adept at writing them._

**Valentines Day 2009- Robin and Patrick**

She was the one who usually planned their holiday celebrations. If Robin left it up to Patrick than they would eat turkey sandwiches in the break room at General Hospital on Thanksgiving, sneak away from all of their family for Christmas through New Years to suntan on some island, and as far as Easter, he didn't even remember it last year until she shoved his suit into his hands to get dressed for church.

But Valentine's Day was the one holiday Patrick was actually into. This time Robin was the one in the dark about where they were going.

It was near midnight when they were finally done at work. Her body ached with exhaustion but the moment that Patrick came up behind her in the locker room and slid the blindfold over her eyes, Robin forget all about being tired. Her blood started to race- hot and strong- through her veins.

"Come on," she said softly "You aren't seriously going to take me out of this hospital wearing this thing, are you?"

He placed his mouth near her ear. "You catch on quick."

"But!" Robin protested, even as shivers chased down her neck starting at the place his breath touched her skin. "What will people think?"

Patrick scooped Robin up in his arms and said, "That I love my wife and she is one lucky woman."

He carried her through the hallways, passed a gaping Kelly and Epiphany, who only rolled her eyes, and onto the elevator.

Once the door closed, his mouth swooped down to capture hers in a kiss. Robin felt his body move as his head dipped and that was her only warning of what was coming, then his lips were on hers and heat was shooting from her lips to the center of her and back again.

No other man on earth had ever had this affect on her. She could never get enough of him, never become bored, never think of walking away. She heard the elevator stop, and moaned as she tried to keep the kiss going.

Patrick chuckled and pulled away. His tone was one that only she ever heard these days, pure between the sheets intimate, when he whispered, "Be patient."

XXXXXXXXX

The car ride was agonizingly long for her. Though it lasted only fifteen minutes. For everyone of them she was in darkness behind her blindfold, left to wonder where he was taking her, and how long he would make her wait to feel his hands on her again.

She drifted into a memory about their wedding night and relived every moment of him worshiping her body from head to toe that night.

They were married with no witnesses- at the first ceremony- as they stood at the candle lit alter with a sleepy-eyed priest that Patrick had roused from his bed and bribed to perform the unofficial nuptials.

For them that was the moment, whether it was legal or not, that they become joined for life. And that night, everything changed, in the best way possible.

2008

_Robin had tears on her face as Patrick slid back up her body, as they lay in their bed just hours after getting married. Their lovemaking was always spectacular but this went beyond that. He seemed intent to cherish every inch of her- body, heart and soul- now that she was his wife. _

_Her body quaked with delight as she came down from her high and he wrapped her into his embrace, settling her close to his chest and stroking her hair._

"_This is forever, Robin," he said "I have to know that you believe in that. That you believe in me."_

_She lifted his hand and lay a soft kiss over his wedding band. "I do. You know I do. There's nothing I believe in more than you and us and our future."_

"_I'm going to give you everything you want. I'm going to be better than I even know how to be right now. I'll figure out a way to do it," he promised, his words were low and earnest. She could hear his fears of not being able to live up to her ideal._

_Robin shifted around and cupped his cheek. "Just love me, Patrick. That's all I need. And you do that perfect already."_

_Then he was kissing her again and sending shockwaves through her whole system with what his hands were doing. She began to lose her mind, lose all sense of time and place and anything but him._

"_Oh, so good, so ...oh."_

**2009**

Robin's heart was beating hard in her chest as the car rolled to a stop. He started to climb out. Her hand moved through the air wildly and she grabbed a hold of his scrubs. "Wait," Robin all but panted

Patrick smiled at her tone and immediately moved toward her to gently take her mouth into another kiss. Her hands gripped his thigh and started to roam, but he pulled away. "Patience, remember?"

"Hell with that," Robin said.

Patrick chuckled and got out of the car. He came around to her door and opened it, picked her up and started to carry her again. The next thing she heard were keys jingling and a door opening. She knew they were not at home because they lived in an apartment building and she could still feel cool air on her skin the moment before they stepped inside of this building.

She kept quiet, wondering if he was parading her past any strangers and if her cheeks were flushed and if what she was aching for was evident on her face. Finally he laid her on a bed.

She reached up to pull off the blindfold. His hand covered hers.

"Not yet," Patrick said.

Robin let out a frustrated sigh. But that turned into a happy little yelp when he began to strip off her clothes.

She asked, "We are alone, right?"

He teased, "What do you think, I am some kind of freak?"

"Well," she joked "I know you are but ..."

He started to tickle her. "Take it back!"

Through her giggles she demanded, "We had better be alone! Where are we?"

Her skin was bare now, and she heard him tossing his clothes aside too, as she waited for an answer.

Then her was kissing her and she was wrapping her legs around him.

He asked, "Do you really care where we are?"

"No."

XXXXXXXX

The blindfold came off later and Robin looked around.

"Whose house is this?" she asked

They were in the middle of a living room. There were hard wood floors, and a fireplace. The only furniture was the bed they were on, which was covered in a white sheet.

"Do you like it?"

Robin turned and met his eyes. "Its not...is it?"

"Do you want it to be?"

She couldn't help but smile. "Did you buy us a house?"

"Looks like I did," Patrick said.

"Ahhh!" she cried happily and did a little bounce on the bed before flinging herself into his arms. "You didn't say a word to me!"

"Its called a surprise for reason, Robin."

She looked into his eyes. They were sparkling with a kind of happiness he never had when he was single. "How many bedrooms?"

"Four," he said "You said that's how many you needed."

"When?"

He didn't answer right away and she saw in his eyes that he was remembering a conversation they had years before.

In a soft voice he told her, "For the three kids and a dog, remember? Don't you still want all that?"

"We hadn't talked about starting a family in a while."

"I know, Robin. It takes me time and I know you were trying to give it to me but I want that future just as bad as you do. In good time we will fill up this house."

Just then she heard a bark.

Her eyes widen. "You got the dog already? When do I get to pick out something?"

"You can pick out the baby names," he promised.

"You know I already did that," she said

"Well, then, you can pick out the vacation house we buy when the kids need somewhere to learn how to swim in the summers. And you can pick out the cat we adopt or the fish or whatever the kids insist they just have to have, one day. There will be plenty to still pick out, I promise."

She gave him a soft kiss. "I believe you."

And for Patrick, those were some of the best words she could ever say to him. Hearing that gave him the strength to keep reaching for more and more of the dream life Robin had once made him believe could become their reality. Everyday of their marriage they moved closer to that and, unlike his adolescent fears, it was the sweetest way to spend a life that he could ever imagine.

As she pulled him back down on top of her, Patrick stared into her deep dark eyes, pools of hope and lust and need and true happiness right now, and he got lost in the moment. Lost in her and those eyes that he now thought of as his home.

_(You're the reason I believe in love  
And you're the answer to my prayers from up above  
All we need is just the two of us  
My dreams came true because of you_

From this moment as long as I live  
I will love you, I promise you this  
From this moment  
I will love you as long as I live  
From this moment on ) (Shania Twain)  


Robin told him, "You so know how to do Valentine's Day right."

The second before he kissed her again, Patrick said, "With you, it couldn't be any other way."


	17. 2009 Pete and Liz

I wrote this couple for The Five and I wanted one more chance to tell their story.

**Valentines Day 2009- Pete and Liz**

She sat at the bar in Jake's and took out a cigarette.

Elizabeth Spencer never thought she would end up a fallen woman- but there was no denying she was just that. In less than three short years she had went from being an angel in the eyes of so many people in Port Charles to a ...common everyday sinner. So much more boring, and so much easier to whisper about, judge, and smirk at when she passed by.

Her lies were for a good cause, weren't they? Her sins committed out of need, not accidents, but not crimes either, or were they?

She would not regret having Jason's daughter or the nights she spent letting Nikolas love her. But both of those things changed her life forever. She felt like the same woman, on the inside, but no one who looked at her seem to see that anymore.

_Thank God, this place still lets you smoke in here_, she thought as she ordered another rum and coke.

"Need a light?" he asked as he sat down next to her.

She slid her eyes over, rolled them at his _trying to damn hard to be sexy _smile, and gave him a small nod.

He lit the cigarette and then said, "You here alone?"

(_Yeah this is that kind of place, _

_but she ain't that kind of _

_girl._

_  
You're reading it all wrong  
Let me tell you about_

_her. _

She only smokes when she drinks.

_She only drinks now and then.  
Now and then when she's tired of being let down by men._

_  
You can give her a light,  
but it's not what you think_

_  
Everybody knows she_

_only drinks alone_

_  
And she only smokes when she drinks) ( Joe Nichols_)

**Liz moved her eyes **away from him, concentrating on some point behind the bar where there was nothing but dusty old bottles of top shelf liquor that anyone who came in here never shelled out the money to have opened.

"Me too," said Pete , answering his own question. He ordered a beer and then tried again.

"Don't you remember me?" he asked "You once reamed me out about messing with your...sister...cousin...what was it? Lulu Spencer."

"Sister- in-law, ex now," Liz answered in a clipped voice.

It wasn't that she wanted to be rude. She just liked to do this alone. Come here and drink a little, smoke a few, not talk, not think.

Sometimes being a single mom was more than she could bear on her own. But all her options for someone to lean on were gone now.

Nikolas was back in his self imposed isolation on that island, still craving Emily, still thinking he could never have her back...though he hadn't even asked her if that was true. Jason was living with Carly. Lucky was married to Sam. And Liz was...just fine on her own, she told herself. Over and over.

_Just fine. _

It sounded like a lie, even when spoken in the silence of her own mind.

"Right, right," Pete agreed. "Lulu was quite a challenge for me as a teacher. She needed a lot of motivation to live up to her potential but once I got her mad enough she really buckled down and wrote some top notch papers. Did she ever tell you I ended up giving her a A minus. No one gets higher than that in my class."

Liz sighed and said, "Coleman."

He looked her way and she motioned to Pete.

Coleman walked over and said "The lady would like to be left alone. Why don't you move to one of the tables, buddy?"

XXXXXXX

**Pete's smile fell away **as Coleman stared him down.

Professor Marquez had charmed the pants, and panties, off half the woman in town already. Surely this little brunette soccer mom couldn't be that much of a challenge.

Of course, none of the other woman had her eyes, her quiet strength, none of them wore there broken hearts in their eyes like she did.

_Don't get carried away now_, Pete told himself, _She is just a hot chick in a bar. Not your future wife or mother of your child or...stop...don't even think that_.

He shook his head, trying to dislodge the image of them together years into the future,

_Just do what you do best_, he ordered himself, _give her one great night you both will never forget. Who needs more anyway?_

Ignoring Coleman, Pete told Liz "You want to dance with me."

She turned to him, looked him up and down, and gave him a very unimpressed stare. "I do?"

He leaned closer to her, "Its just one dance. Call it a favor. I'm trying to prove myself wrong."

"About what?"

"That it won't feel good to hold you," he said.

It was a line he hadn't ever used before but he hoped it came out okay. The odd thing was this time it was more truth than bull, which was a first for him.

Liz stood up, threw back the rest of her drink and stubbed out her cigarette. "You are truly...sad. This is how a grown man spends Valentine's Day? Hitting on random women in bars and hoping one is drunk enough to go home with you. Well, I have _never _been that drunk in my life. So, Professor, I would say your chances are slim to none. And slim just walked out the door."

She threw some money on the bar to pay for her tab.

He said, "You weren't random," his voice was low and intense, as if he was revealing a secret to her, and to himself.

Liz raised an eyebrow.

He paused for a moment. He never let a woman hear how he really felt, or thought, or dreamed. That might led to...love or something close to it...and that was the last thing he ever wanted to feel again.

Most people thought he had never been in love, that a smarmy guy like him was incapable of feeling that particular emotion. But he had fallen once. She just didn't know it. And then she died in a car accident and he was left with all his words still unspoken, all of his heart hers but not in any way that anyone else on earth ever knew.

Now here stood Elizabeth in front of him and he knew he should just walk away. Throw some snarky line back and her and bolt.

But, deep in him, there was this little tiny voice that was begging him to not do that this time. He didn't know what to call it but it was controlling what he did next.

"I notice you...sometimes," he said softly "Around town. Ever since that day you stormed into my office. I see you at the park with your little boy, every now and again, or on the docks, drinking coffee with a friend. You aren't ever alone or I might of said hi, though I am sure you wouldn't have wanted me to. I ...just want one dance, Elizabeth."

In the middle of his speech, her face had soften a tiny bit. Without a word, she passed her purse to Coleman and then walked over to the jukebox.

Pete followed and put on a song. It was the cheesiest one on there, and he hoped like hell it worked.

Micheal Bolton started to sing _When a Man Loves a Woman _as Pete took Liz into his arms, and just about lost his train of thought as she titled her head up and looked him dead in the eye. For the first time that night she didn't look broken, instead she looked intrigued and more than a little nervous.

Her caught a whiff of her hair, and found himself engulfed in a tropical scent that took him a moment to name. Freesia.

He figured Liz would be stiff in his embrace but she was the exact opposite. She seemed to ease close to him as the music played on. Almost as if she needed to feel the warmth of another person tonight just like he did.

Pete never wanted to need anyone but over the years he started to. He needed his father, now that his mother was dead; he needed Patrick and even had grown to rely on Robin, too; he needed his roommate, Cruz, because if he lived alone he would go days talking to no one but his students. But Pete did not want to, after tonight, need Elizabeth.

That would be a disaster. Because she surely wouldn't need him back and then he would end up what he never wanted to be again- left behind.

He swallowed hard and was planning a way to escape, giving up on his idea of a one night stand, it was too risky- he could see that now- when Liz whispered to him.

"This is nice."

And that, for him, was it. Those three softly spoken words, with her big blue eyes looking at him like he had helped her in some small way. Pete Marquez lost his heart in that moment.

_Damn, _he thought but smiled, a genuine one filled with a relief, joy, and fear, "Yeah, this is nice, Elizabeth. I told you one little dance wouldn't hurt anything."

She narrowed her eyes at him, almost as if she could see what he now felt for her. His heart started to hammer in his chest.

"Well, even if it did," she said "when everything already hurts, what's a little more?"

Then she kissed him and heat scorched his lips, shot down to his heart, then his gut, looped around his whole body, and when she pulled back a moment later it, and her, were firmly settled in his soul.

(_For a complicated girl  
She ain't that hard to figure out _

She only smokes when she drinks  
She only drinks now and then

_Now and then when she's tired  
of being let down by men_

_  
You can give her a light  
But it's not what you_

_think_

_  
Everybody knows _

_she only drinks alone_

_  
And she only smokes when she drinks _) ( Joe Nichols)

She took his hand, as the last chords of the song played, "Lets get out of here."

Pete's mouthed opened slightly as he saw the desire sparking in her eyes.

XXXXXXX

**Liz was shocked **when Pete said, "Lets not."

_Well, isn't that a _...she thought bitterly as a string of curses ran through her mind.

The kiss had been good...hot...better than she remembered any other first kiss being.

Her kids were with her grandmother and , even though she had a really bad track record with one night stands- they always meant too much to her and she tended to get pregnant by them- sometimes Elizabeth needed one. They helped her to get through the nights that hit her like a bullet through the heart. The nights when she just wanted to forget what her life really was.

She glared at Pete and jerked her hand away. "Whatever."

Shaking her head, Liz went back to the bar and lit another cigarette.

He came over and sat down next to her. She threw an annoyed glance at him but stopped cold when she noticed he was sweating and shaking slightly. Her nursing instincts kicked in.

Liz reached out and felt his head. "You aren't feverish but you don't look so good. Maybe you should head to GH and get looked at."

He smiled. "I don't think they could do anything for me."

"Typical man. You don't need doctors or medicine. Fine. But don't blame me if you keel over right there on that barstool." She ordered another drink.

Pete paid for it then said, "Well I would blame you, Elizabeth. Because I was fine when I walked in here. Now I'm..." he let out a breath and asked "would you like to have dinner with me tomorrow night?"

Her eyebrows furrowed. "Hmmm?"

_He turns me down and now wants a date_? she asked herself _What is his deal?_

"I want to take you out, Liz. I want that more than I want anything else right now. More than I want...just to take you home tonight."

Her head was spinning. She had went through a gambit of emotions already and now she was looking at him and thinking about diving back into the whole messy thing called...love. Dating. Sex with strings. Loud, life changing, ruin everything, save your life love. Because he had already turned her down for just sex.

She started to giggle, both because she was a little drunk and because he looked like he was going to pass out as he waited for an answer.

"Why the hell not?" she asked "Sure. I'll go to dinner with you. One dinner, though. No promises after that."

His whole face broke out into a smile that shot straight into her heart.

_Oh, no, don't do this again_...she told herself.

But it was too late, she already was starting to dig him and soon she would be wondering how she ever managed to get by without Pete Marquez around to make her laugh, and kiss away her fears, and look sick at the thought of commitment, while begging her for more and more of it.

That night they stayed at the bar till it closed, dancing and drinking and falling.

She threw out her cigarette as they walked out the door after last call.

Pete kissed her in the moonlight, with only the stars as a witness to what was starting for them. Then he put her in a cab and promised to see her later that day.

He would miss her if he stayed away too long, besides no one liked to be alone and they had both been lonely long enough already.

Through the rolled down cab window, he said "Happy Valentine's Day, Elizabeth."

She smiled and said, "You too, Peter."

He asked, "You aren't so drunk that you are going to forget all about this, and me, when you wake up, are you?"

"I have a feeling," she said in a _What in the hell are we doing? _tone, "you, and this night, are gonna be impossible to forget."

"Unfortunately," he said with a grin "I pretty sure you are right."

They didn't want to fall in love, they both hated love, it had brought nothing but trouble to them both so far, but still they couldn't stop what was coming for them.

He watched as the cab drove away, wearing a smile and counting down the hours till he could see her again.

(_From this moment, as long as I live,  
I will love you._

_I promise you this.  
There is nothing I wouldn't give_

_  
from this moment on) ( Shania Twain)_

_AN- This couple might only be loved by me but they are a lot of fun for me to write. Thanks for reading,_

_Sara  
_


	18. 2009 Cruz and Emily

_AN- this couple ended up together because I am simply running out of eligible people who might hook up. _

_Plus I read a hot little tale by notashamedtobesoilyfan that paired them up and did a much sexier job at it than I could manage._

_I am still looking for suggestions for couples, if you have any. _

**2009 Valentine's Day- Cruz and Emily**

He blamed the fact that he spent the whole day thinking about her on the dream he had the night before. It had been an exact replay- kiss for kiss, stroke for stroke, moment by glorious moment- of their one night together. A man could only do so much about his subconscious. He hadn't wanted her there, but she still was.

During the typical day, Cruz Rodriguez usually never thought about Emily Quatermaine like that anymore. Though, there had been a time when that was all he did.

Now, he pushed the image of her so far back in his mind that the only time he went there was on the nights she haunted his dreams.

They hadn't even kissed in a year and a half. It was way back in late 2007 when Emily had let Cruz help her create one night where Nikolas' name was drove from her mind, her heart, and her mouth.

She had screamed "Cruz,", with her eyes locked on his, and moaned it and sighed it out later as her eyes drifted close and she fell asleep in his arms.

It was one of those crazy nights that could only get started at Jake's bar.

**2007**

Emily knew she looked good. Her dress was just the kind that no man could look away from. Her heels were stilettoes, her legs bare.

One day before she had walked in on Nikolas and Elizabeth kissing. They said it was the first time it happened but she could really care less for explanations at that point.

She knew Liz was going through a hard time. Maybe the hardest of her life since she had lost Lucky and Jason's love on the same day.

But Emily lost her father six months before that and when she saw the kiss between her fiancee and her best friend, she lost her future. She really couldn't feel sorry for Liz, not right now, at least.

Times were tough all over.

She sauntered through the door to the bar bent on revenge. She had called Lucky first. Now sleeping with him would have been the fulfilment of one of her fantasies and made Liz hurt good but...he was too honorable to treat her or Liz or Nik that way. Before Emily could even proposition him he was urging her to forgive and forget the mistake Nik and Liz had made.

_Screw that idea_, she thought to herself.

Lucky did mention that Cruz had wanted to meet him for a drink that night and Lucky had to cancel because Sam needed a shoulder to cry on. Or else Emily could have joined them and they could have shot some pool, Lucky said.

Well, she didn't need Lucky to be here in order to get what she wanted tonight.

Nikolas was not the only one who could kill what they had by letting lust rule. Emily could play the game just as well, and make him sorry he ever did her wrong.

(_She's dressed to kill, in a dress he bought her._

_She wouldn't care if he walked in and caught her._

_She's come to dance a dance or two _

_and do no telling what by the time the night is through) _

_( Brooks and Dunn)_

**It didn't take her long **to spot Cruz. He was sitting with some other cops at a table near the door. She walked past them on her way to the bar and ordered a tequila- straight and keep them coming, she told Coleman.

After pounding back her first one she turned around, leaned back on the bar, and lifted one finger. She gave him a _come here _motion and watched as his eyes widened.

He didn't move at first and Emily started to lose her nerve.

_God, I could make a total ass out of myself_ _if he is not interested_, she thought. _Maybe I am as unappealing to him as I am to Nikolas_.

(_She found out the hard way about him._

_She's out to find out_

_how she'll do without him._

_Her hands are shaking ,_

_her heart's pounding._

_By the way she's drinking_

_his memory's drowning_.)

**Cruz slowly stood up **and made his way to her. "Something I can do for you Miss Quatermaine?"

"Yes...don't call me Miss Quatermaine. It's Em. Just Em. Like the letter. M. Can you say that?"

He stared at her for a long moment, seeming to realize that he was caught up in some kind of plan she was intent on playing out, and then said "Em. Yeah, I think I can manage to remember that."

She met his eyes and asked, "You drink tequila?"

"Not usually," he said "After a night of that, its hard to recall your own name- let alone what you did and with who."

She gave him a look that clearly said _That sounds good to me._

Emily told him, "I want you to drink tequila with me. I'm buying. I need to have a night like you just described or else I might just do something drastic like kill my fiancee or my best friend. And that would really upset Lucky, don't you think?"

Cruz said softly, "Well, it wouldn't make him too happy."

Then he ordered a bottle of tequila.

Little did he know Emily was only looking for one night, but Cruz was going to be thinking about her for months afterward.

(_She walks by and every head turns. _

_You can see how hot _

_her fire burns._

_He didn't know what a good thing he had._

_It's too late and that's too bad._

_She's not the cheating kind ._

_She's been cheated one too many times._

_Oh, she's never fooled around._

_Cause he's still lying, she's through crying._

_She's not fooling now. _)

**2009**

**Emily was in a much different **place this Valentine's Day than last year. She was not wandering around the park in a daze or going home with her ex- boyfriend to pretend like they could make it work.

Sonny had saved her last year, brought her out of the darkness she had plunged into when Nikolas couldn't keep his lips off of Liz and then later when she couldn't keep her mind off of Cruz. Back then she hadn't been up for another turn on the love train, especially when all her stops ended up in Hell. So after one night with Sonny she pushed him away just as she had Cruz months before.

This February she was stronger and feeling like her old self. The girl she was many years before- back in college when she wasn't anyone's victim or survivor.

Through the holiday season last year she kept thinking about sending a gift to Cruz. Or just showing up at his door one night and offering to be his gift. But she hadn't. It had been over a year since their night together. He was probably over it and her, she assumed.

Then good old Valentine's day rolled around and she got asked out by several guys at the hospital. Without giving it a second thought, Emily said no.

There was only one guy she wanted to sit across a dinner table from, or lay next to in a bed all through the dark hours and be holding when the sun came up.

So she put it all on the line with him for a second time in her life. Only now she knew how high the stakes were.

XXXXXXXX

**He walked out of work **to find her leaning against his car, holding a bottle of tequila with a big red bow on it.

Cruz was known for playing things cool but she caught him off guard and a huge smile spread across his face the instant he spotted her. Then he stilled his expression and asked, "One of those nights again?"

"Nope."

"No?" he asked "So what is this? A late thank you, Em?"

"I need a favor, Cruz. A ride. Can you help me out?"

"Get in," he said.

Now it was her turn to smile.

As they pulled out of the parking lot, he asked "Where to?"

"Just drive for a few minutes, okay?"

She was starting to get nervous. She was dressed in her everyday clothes- jeans and a sweater. She was just her average self now. Would that be enough? Was he already taken by someone else?

Emily swallowed as she remembered what it was like to kiss him. Her body tingled and sent crazy frantic messages to her mind, begging her to find a way to get his lips on hers again.

Cruz spoke first, "You know I tried...before..right? I called but you never called back. After twenty messages, I got the hint, Em."

"I was in a bad place then."

"I know."

She glanced at him. His words had been so soft and heart felt. They sounded just like the way he spoke in her ear that night they spent in his bed. Then it had been Spanish he was murmuring. She had no idea what any of it meant but it all sounded like "_I treasure you_," to her.

He banished Nikolas from her mind for the hours they had been together. She could never explain to him how grateful she was for that.

"Cruz," she let out a shaky breath "I don't really want to drink tequila with you tonight and have another _forget about everything, time out of time _fling. I realize I have waited forever...and you probably really don't give a damn about me anymore...if you ever cared you probably don't now...but could you again? Because for all my not wanting to think about you, I think about you an awful lot."

He glanced over at her and the look in his dark eyes took her breath away- it was sex and longing and, what really made her want to break down and cry, traces of love. Or, at least, the start of what could be love.

He admitted, "I wondered if you were ever going to say that to me."

In a small voice she asked, "Is it too late?"

He smiled, "If I said yes and sent you away...I would just be knocking on your door six months from now. Or, maybe, even sooner. Because I can't forget you either, Em."

She turned her face toward the window as tears brushed the back of her eyes. She felt so damn forgettable and replaceable in Nikolas' life but with Cruz it was a different story. He never failed to go out of his way to speak to her when he spotted her around town and never held it against her when she didn't pursue a relationship with him before now.

She spotted him with other women a few times but, even then, his eyes stayed on her until she walked away. He made her feel wanted, and like he would still feel that way even as the years went by.

Emily really wanted to find out if he was the man she imagined him to be.

"Though I have tried to," Cruz said "I tried to push you out of my thoughts, my dreams. But you always crept back in. Still...I don't think I can handle another one night stand. Its takes too long to get over it, and you. So...if I am your way to forget some other guy who didn't know what an amazing thing he had with you...then I think I should take you home right now."

"You're not," she promised. "I came looking for you tonight, Cruz, because I want you."

She let out a breath. "Wow. I can not believe I just said that aloud. But it sounded good, right? I want you. Cruz, I want you in my life. I want you..."

"Keep saying that," he told her in a low and intimate tone "I really like the way you say those words."

XXXXXXX

**He took her to dinner **at Eli's and they finally got to have a real conversation that lasted hours.

They started to ease into a place where they could be more than just fantasies to each other, they could be friends, and they could go home together, back to his bed where all this started, and see what it felt like to kiss and stroke and fall asleep with the person who you trusted to stick around in the morning and every day after that.

Neither of them could say if this would last forever but it was already a year and a half in the making, and there was no sign that the fire that had been ignited between them was going to die out anytime soon.

She woke up in the middle of the night, "Cruz," Emily whispered.

She ran her hand up his chest and his eyes fluttered open. His hand captured hers, he brought it to his mouth and kissed it. "Yes, Em?"

"I shouldn't have made you wait, but thank you for doing it."

He rolled on top of her, causing her to smile as she felt the contours of his body mold with her curves.

He said, "The waiting is over," and then he was kissing her and she was forgetting every other man on the planet but Cruz Rodriguez.


	19. Christmas Series 2008 Jason and Brenda

**The Christmas One Shot Series**

**This story is about Jason Morgan and Brenda Barrett.**

**Revisionist history.**

**_Adventures in Parenting_**

"You brought your gun, right?"

Jason glared at Maxie, as they stood shoulder to shoulder with a throng of people inside the toy store at the Port Charles Mall.

It was Christmas Eve and there was a rumor there would be one last shipment of dolls coming in tonight. Not just any doll. The "Cammie" doll, the most sought after toy in all of America that year. Every girl between two and ten had to have this doll, for reasons Jason could not understand no matter how many times Brenda explained it to him.

All he knew was he had to bring this doll home or else.

Spinelli warned "Maximista..."

She shrugged. "I'm just saying, if he is serious about getting a Cammie, he might have to go all badass, balls to the wall. If this crowd sees Jason looking like he is even thinking about going for a weapon, they will all hit the floor. Viola! A clear path."

"Shut up," Jason ground out.

"What? I'm trying to help. You wouldn't have to actually _shoot _anyone."

"You're gonna start a riot," he said.

"I think Stone Cold is right. The patrons here all have a very desperate gleam in their parental eyes. Better to just stay quiet and not risk pandemonium breaking out. The Bodacious One would be most angry if all we brought home to her was a ripped leather jacket in place of her husband. Not that I do not think Stone Cold is more than capable of protecting himself but this seems to be a crowd that could turn wickedly violent in a instant should the shop keeper say there are no more Cammies."

Suddenly people all around them were saying "There's no more Cammies! Did you hear that? No more Cammies!" and everyone was pushing.

Jason groaned as an overweight woman shoved him into the wall. The crowd pushed and jostled each other, growing frantic.

Maxie yelped, as someone stepped on her foot. "Watch it, buddy! You don't want to piss Jason Morgan off, do you? That's right. _The hitman_."

"Maximista apologies! Humble apologies, kind sir!"

The crowd shoved and pushed- a giant sweaty frantic mass of humans- and Jason let out a long breath as he fought to stay upright.

All of this for a doll.

But he wasn't about to give up now. It was get this doll or face tears Christmas morning. And if there was one thing Jason hated, it was tears- especially in his little girls eyes.

He was bringing home a Cammie, one damn way or another.

__

Jason and Brenda put their daughter to bed. Five years old, she was their surprise baby, created one desperate night during a marriage of convenience. The bond her parents had went back years, but the love they found started during that pregnancy. It wasn't till her first birthday that Jason asked Brenda to make it all official and become his wife...for real. Had he done it any sooner, she would have sworn it was all about the baby.

He knew it wasn't though. It was all about making sure his life stayed just as good as it was since he broke his own rules and kissed his wife that first night...the night before she was supposed to leave for Rome, leaving him behind.

It struck him then, as he watched her getting ready to walk up the stairs to bed, that he didn't want to make it easy on her to leave him. He didn't want to let her leave at all but if she was going, then she would go knowing how he felt about her. One kiss sparked a wildfire that ended with them on his pool table, and her flight to Rome cancelled.

As they walked out of Jasmine's room, and across the hall into their own, Brenda whispered "You know, there's only three more days till Christmas. Carly called earlier-"

Jason knew from her tone that the news wasn't good.

Brenda went on "No luck finding a Cammie in Los Angeles. She said they are as sold out like everywhere else. She promised to make Jax go out and look some more while she was in meetings with the hotel decorators. I can just imagine how many stores she's forcing him to go to. Its like there is not one Cammie left in all of the country. I can't even find one online."

"Its just a doll, Bren."

"No its a Cammie and Jaz has her heart set on it."

"I can get her hundreds of other dolls."

"They won't be Cammies."

"No but-"

"Jase." Brown pleading eyes he couldn't resist settled on his. "This is the only present she wants."

"I'll get her a Cammie."

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Brenda was sitting on the couch, with gifts and wrapping paper surrounding her, when Jason came through the door. Seeing the shopping bag in his hand, she bounded to her feet, squealing "You got it! Oh my God, you found a Cammie!"

In a second she was across the room, jumping in his arms.

"Shh. You don't want Jasmine to hear you."

"She's at the hospital Christmas party with Alexis and her girls. I thought I'd use the time to wrap more presents."

Smiling in excitement she took the bag from him and opened it. "So how hard was this to get?"

He shook his head wearily. "It got ugly."

They went over to sit down on the couch. "Tell me all about it," she said.

"You're holding a one hundred thousand dollar doll."

"_What? _They usually sell for forty bucks."

"Not tonight they don't. They gave out tickets to the first fifty people in line. I didn't get one so Maxie took it into her own hands, like usual, and almost got us all hauled down to the station."

"What did she pull this time?"

"She started saying that she was there on behalf of the Policeman's Widow and Orphans program and that the commissioner ordered her to take possession of the first Cammie the store sold tonight to give to a dead cop's kid. They had cops there to control the crowd and they didn't find her lie all that funny. But none of them wanted to piss Mac off so they just told her to get out of there. After Spinelli took her home, I bought someone's ticket."

"Well at least we have the doll. This is over. I'm sure you won't ever have to go through so much over a toy again."

"Nah, its not over. I have a week to track down another Cammie and send it to Sarah Webber's kid in Europe. Its the only way I could get Audrey to sell me the ticket."

"Audrey took you for a hundred grand?" Brenda burst into laughter.

"She said it would go to the hospital research fund."

"A good cause, at least."

Jason shook his head in exhaustion. "Never again."

Brenda leaned over and gave him a kiss. "You're a great dad. I know Jasmine is going to be thrilled to find out Santa brought her just what she asked for."

"Good."

"You know," she said, raising an eyebrow, "Alexis said she would call before she brings Jaz back."

"Yeah?"

With a smile on her lips, she nodded and crawled onto his lap. "Unless you are too tired...."

His lips joined with his before she could even finish the sentence.

XXXXXXXXX

Jason woke up the next day to his daughter jumping on the bed.

Jasmine bounced up and down, wearing a huge smile and holding her new doll. "Merry Christmas, Daddy! Look what Santa got me! A Cammie."

"A Cammie? Don't think I ever heard of that before," he teased her.

"Its only the best doll ever, Daddy! I told you all about here, 'member?"

"Oh. A Cammie. Sure. So where's your mama at, munchkin girl?"

"She said to wake you up."

He sat up and pulled her into his arms. "By jumping on my bed? I don't think she told you to do that," he teased.

She giggled, sounding just like her mother. "Sorry, Daddy."

"So how many presents did you open already?"

"Just this one. Santa left it by my bed." She hugged the doll fiercely. "I love her."

Even though he knew Christmas was not just about gifts, Jason couldn't help but feel touched that his daughter got so much pleasure out of her toy. Right or wrong, it had been worth it to get it for her.

Brenda came walking in the room. "You're finally awake, huh? Its almost six am, you know."

He groaned and she let out a laugh he knew well.

Ever since the day Brenda moved into his apartment, she had turned a quiet, sad home filled with memories that haunted him into a place with laughter, jokes, fights, friendship, family and love. She gave him a life worth living and a daughter he loved with every part of his heart and soul.

That Christmas he started the day with the best gift he could ever have, his wife and daughter with huge smiles on their faces.

Reaching into the bedside drawer he pulled out a small wrapped box. "Look, Jaz, Santa got your mama something too."

"That's too small to be a Cammie," Jasmine said.

Brenda opened the gift to find Jason's high school ring on a chain. He had to spend an afternoon in the Quatermaine attic with Alice to find the box that had it but he managed to track it down.

Brenda's eyes met his. "I think I like this more than a Cammie, Jaz."

He always tried to find ways to prove to her, without using words which he felt didn't mean as much as actions, that they were not together because they had an accidental pregnancy. They were not just about sharing a daughter. They were about sharing a past and making a future, one adventure at a time.

THE END


	20. Lucky and Sam

The Christmas One Shot Series

****

Lucky Spencer and Samantha McCall.

________________________________________________

Memory Making

There are woman who turn heads and ones who blend into the background.

Samantha McCall is a head turner.

When she walks off the elevator at The Metro Court the party seems to pause for a moment as people take her in. There is no doubt about it, she's stunning to look at on a normal day and tonight she's made an effort to be even more so. But she doesn't want to impress the whole room, or prove anything to any of them, she got dressed tonight with only one person in mind.

She's meeting her boyfriend Lucky at the New Years Eve Party because he had to come straight from work.

His eyes catch hers across the crowded room and her heart skips ten beats, making her suck in a shaky breath as she weaves her way through the party guests to his side.

There is a certain way he looks at her....not always but sometimes....that makes her feel more beautiful than she ever has before. It makes the times when he doubts her and when his faith in her falters worth fighting through because in these moments, when his eyes light up at the sight of her, she feels more than just sexy in her little red dress, she feels chosen, trusted and most of all clean.

Its almost as if his love can make her sins disappear.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

A grin tugs at the corner of his lips as she walks towards him. For a second, its like no one else is in the room. There's no music playing, no waiters with champagne, no sister dancing with a gangster, no cousin trying to be nosy, and no past where he wasn't good enough weighing on his chest like a fifty pound block of cement.

There's no pain breaking his heart. No disappointment in himself, his father, his ex-wife, and the world clawing at his insides, making him crave a drink or a pill or a game of high stakes poker. Something to take the edge of his reality.

In times like this, even though they are rare, he looks at her and feels completely healed.

When she reaches his side, Lucky bends down and brushes a kiss on her cheek. "Hey."

"Hi."

Neither of them are good at putting into words how they feel for each other. Almost as if its tempting fate to say _I love you _or _This is perfect or Next year, we should do this or that_. Way too dangerous for two people like them.

So he doesn't say _Damn, you're gorgeous. Let me take you home and don't ever leave again. Spend forever in my bed. Promise me I have your heart. _Instead he just says _Hey_, hoping maybe underneath that one word she hears that he does want more than just right now from her.

He wants to spend this year that is just about to start with her by his side. The last thing he is doing is looking for a way out, though Sam sometimes, almost out of the blue, asks him if that isn't exactly want he wants. Like she expects him to eventually get the urge to run away from her.

Lucky doesn't plan on running. He's just praying there is a way to make what he wants and wants he actually gets, for the first time ever in his whole life, be the same thing.

He's use to losing out on forever. His best friend is buried now. His first love warming the bed of another man. His sons call him Daddy but he's scared to death there will come a day when they change their minds about doing that. He's scared he is going to lose again.

Life and love feel shaky to him now.

His heart is fragile and trembling- patched back together messily- but its the only one he has to work with, and so he offers it to Sam each day, praying it is enough.

"You wanna?" he asks, as he nods at the dance floor. Reaching out his hand, he grasps hers and leads her there, then pulls her close to his body.

They started out ugly. But they are far from that now. Somehow, in the midst of getting revenge and in the madness of losing control, they took their two broken, imperfect half-empty lives and made one beautiful life that they could share together.

That they managed to pull that miracle off gives Lucky hope everyday.

He isn't transferring his love for someone else onto Sam, using her as a place to bury all the feelings he can't let go of, and he isn't using her as a weapon to strike back at Liz and Jason.

That's the thing. He isn't using her anymore at all.

He's loving her.....slow and steady...day by day....dancing in a room full of friends, family and strangers....making memories of them that he will carry for a lifetime. And, he knows, its about damn time he tell her so.

Looking down at Sam, Lucky says "If you aren't too busy....I'd like to take you on a date."

A sweet smile plays on her ruby painted lips. "Oh yeah? Where to?"

"The Metro Court New Years Eve Party." He holds his breath. He never used to be so scared to reach for happy. But he doesn't think he can bear to have her snatched away from him too. To lose out another time just because he wanted more than he should even ask for.

But he was asking. He had to. She was worth the risk.

Sam laughs. "Okay! When are you picking me up? Lucky, if you haven't noticed, we are at the party already. What gives?"

"No, not this year. Next year."

She stills in his arms. Her eyes hold his. The room could be on fire and they wouldn't even notice it.

And then she says, her voice soft but sure, "Okay."

He spins her around, as smiles break out on both their faces, and then pulls her against him again, and they dance, daring to love even though they know love can bring pain.

When he looks down into her eyes again and sees a look in her eyes that he only catches there on rare occasions: she knows she is loved.

He feels like her hero.

The core of what they are to each other isn't a dark, desperate bond based on revenge sex, no matter what anyone might think, its a man giving a woman what she needs most to feel worthy, and a woman giving a man someone to be better for, to try again with, and to build a million new dreams to replace the ones he lost.

Lucky whispers in her ear "Love the dress, now lets get it off you."

Sam's mouth finds his in a quick kiss- all the answer he needs- and then they are heading for the elevator together_. _he thinks, as they step inside the elevator together. Sam hits the stop button after they go half a floor, then pulls him into a wild kiss.

Maybe next year we'll actually make it to midnight while still at the party,

Hell with the party. All Lucky needs is her and his year is already made.

****

THE END


	21. Nikolas and Carly

The Christmas One Shot Series

****

Carly Benson and Nikolas Cassadine

Revisionist history

**Twist of Fate**

**2006**

_Their first kiss felt forbidden. A shared crime. A mutual sin. A thousand shades of wrong but so right that they couldn't have stopped it if they tried._

_His lips brushed against hers in a sensual moment of escape. Something they both needed desperately._

_The eight months since Courtney died felt like a slow walk through hell. Everyone who loved Courtney seemed to retreat into themselves, handling their pain alone, but Carly and Nikolas clung to each other._

_That particular night had been the worse though._

_Spencer came down with a fever that could have killed him. All either of them could think is that first they lost Courtney and now they would lose her son too. A sweet, fat cheeked baby that they both had been devoted to since the day Jax confessed to Carly that he switched the paternity results._

_She could have kept his secret. Could have taken it to her grave. For Jason she would have or Lucas or Lulu....but in that moment she realized her loyalty was not to Jax before Nikolas. What mattered was what Courtney would have chosen and that is what Carly had to put first. The choice she made ended the fling she had going with Jax but it also bonded her to Nikolas for life._

_When she placed his son in his arms for the first time Nikolas cried and it was then that Carly fell just a little bit in love with. Still she never planned to let it go further than friendship._

_But in the emotion filled moments after Patrick told them that Spencer's fever broke, and then left them in the quiet of the hospital room with the sleeping child, Carly and Nikolas melted into each other in a short, shocking meeting of their lips._

_"I'm sorry," she said, as she pulled away, her head spinning with memories of Courtney, and the taste of Nikolas on her mouth._

_"No, no. I'm the one who owes you an apology. I wasn't thinking straight....it was the relief of finding out Spencer is recovering ."_

_"I get it."_

_"Thank you for being here tonight. I promise....that...will not happen again."_

_"Maybe this is a mistake. Me helping you raise Spencer."_

_"What? I hope my behavior is not the reason why you feel this way. I really do cherish our time together. You've made me actually believe I could raise my son without his mother being here. I wouldn't want to ruin our friendship because of my momentary lapse of judgment."_

_"You don't get it, do you? You don't see what I've done? How I'm working you. I swear I never set out to do this...I'm not even trying to do this...but I am."_

_"Working me? I'm sorry but you've lost me."_

_"I've wanted you to kiss me for months."_

_He stood there in stunned silence._

_Carly grabbed her purse. "I have to get out of here."_

_"No wait," he took hold of her arm and pulled her close to him. For a long moment they were both silent, as his eyes drifted close, his breath washing over her, while she stood there trembling until he finally admitted "I've wanted to kiss you for months too."_

_XXXXXXXX_

Carly hurried out of her limo and rushed through the church parking lot. She slid into her seat next to Nikolas at the last minute before the Christmas play started, whispering "The conference call ran late. Oh my gosh, the boys look so cute!"

This was Spencer's first year to be in the pageant, but Michael and Morgan had been in it several times already. Every year- even though the show was the same thing as the year before- Jason, Carly and Sonny trekked down to the church to watch them. Carly quickly scanned the crowd of parents sitting around her. Sure enough there was Jason with Sam, a row away from them Sonny sat next to his father.

Every since Courtney's death it seemed like Jason and Sonny were growing farther and farther apart with each passing day. The loss of her from their lives left a hole that no one else could fill, and an ache in Carly she didn't dare talk about aloud. She felt like she didn't have the right to rail at fate about stealing her friend, because if Courtney never died, then Carly would have never fallen in love with Nikolas.

And even if she should wish that was what had happened, she just couldn't. She wasn't born noble.

A cold breeze whipped over her, causing Carly to shiver. Nikolas slid off his scarf and wrapped it around her neck.

"Thanks," she mouthed.

Their eyes met and held, as Kristina Davis- Corinthos said her line in the play and the crowd let out a collective "Awww."

There were times when Carly was wracked by guilt for loving Nikolas. Times when she's sure she stole Courtney's life and she doesn't deserve any happiness. But most of the time she refused to let thoughts like that linger in her head.

Because Courtney would not have wanted her wallowing in guilt. She would tell her: _Don't waste a second. It all goes by way too fast. And the seconds with Nikolas are way too precious to wish away._

Later that night, after the kids were all tucked in bed, having a sleepover at what Michael and Morgan called "Spooky Island" even though they had grown to love exploring the caves and secret passageway, Carly and Nikolas held each other tight in the living room of his mansion, barely swaying to the music that was playing.

She loved the way he could make her feel safe when his arms were wrapped around her. There was something inherently steady in Nikolas. He wouldn't run when the going got tough. He wouldn't hate her for being imperfect. He saw himself as cursed. Considered himself damn lucky to have her. But Carly knew she was the lucky one.

They took their relationship slow. No more quickee marriages and even quicker divorces for her. Nikolas didn't make her feel like she had to rush him off to the alter to hang onto him. And when she got really crazy and reckless, when she raged at life and all it was doing to her, was when he held her tighter, instead of pushing her away. That's how she knew they were going to last.

His hand caressed her cheek. The firelight cast shadows on his face as she looked deep into his eyes, seeing no ghosts of the past like before, only love for her and the life they were building together. He said, his voice filled with awe, his words a reverent whisper "God, you are gorgeous."

"Yeah, well, so are you, Prince."

He grinned. "Thank you for bringing the boys over to spend Christmas here."

"Well Alfred does make the best hot chocolate in town."

"Oh," he laughed. "You're just here for Alfred's hot chocolate, are you? I see how it is."

She laughed. "Why else would I be here? Oh yeah, maybe because.....I love you. Yeah, that must be it."

It wasn't the first time she told him and it wouldn't be the last but every time the words fell from her lips his eyes darkened with a sensual heat that said he would never let her get away from him. Which was fine, she didn't plan on trying to.

The smile slowly slid off his face as he ran his fingers into her hair. Right before his lips met hers he said "I certainly do hope you always will."

****

THE END


	22. Matt and Nadine

**Christmas One Shot Series**

**Matt and Nadine**

Note- This story uses slightly revised history. For one thing, Aunt Raylene is not dead. Nadine never went to visit her. This was written in November of 2008.

**The Snowstorm of '08. **

All Matt wanted for his first Christmas in Port Charles was a beer and sleep. He stood at the nurses station, trying to catch up on his paperwork, so he could go home and work on getting both.

Leyla stood at the window on the fourth floor of General Hospital. "What in the world is that silly girl up to now?"

Matt was at the nurses desk working on files. "Who?"

"Nadine."

As Matt headed over to have a look for himself, Leyla turned away, smiled and left. Matt squinted as he tried to see what Nadine was doing. All the snow that was falling clouded his view but he could make her out in the distance.

It wasn't the first time he found himself watching her.

There was something about Nadine that constantly made Matt Hunter stop then stare. Nadine only seemed to have two modes: doing something crazy or on the verge of doing something crazy.

Seeing her blonde hair whipping in the winter wind as snow covered her from head to toe while she stood outside of General Hospital seemed to fit into the crazy category to Matt. It was twenty below zero and Christmas Eve.

_What in the hell,_ he thought. _Does she want to catch frostbite and die_?

He jogged away from the window and headed for the locker room to grab his coat, scarf and gloves then ran outside, silently cursing under his breath the whole time.

Doesn't she have a Prince boyfriend to look out for her? Really, if Nik isn't up to the job then Nadine should kick his ass to the curb, Matt thought to himself.

"Hey!"

Her head turned. When she saw him, her eyes lit up.

He told himself she did that for everyone, which could be true. But there was no doubt in his mind that she always did it for him. Not that it meant a thing. She was that type of girl Bubbly.

Matt was the antithesis of bubbly. Dour was more his style.

"Dr. Hunter, going for a stroll? No. You aren't the strolling kind, are you? You're more the treadmill type. Get on, get down. No stopping to smell the roses. Though you really couldn't today even if you wanted to because there would be two feet of snow covering them." She blew on her hands. "Wow! Its cold. My Aunt Raylene always said that early winter snow storm means that-"

"Nadine! Shut up about that old woman already."

She made a hurt face, sticking out her bottom lip slightly, and instantly made Matt regret his words.

He asked "What are you doing out here anyway?"

"Waiting for a bus."

"A bus. In this weather. Where is the bus going? Right back here so you can check in with hypothermia? You're a nurse. You should know better."

"I'm off duty. Don't boss me."

"Boss you? Don't boss you....ugh....fine. Freeze to death, woman. The Prince can marry his old friend Elizabeth when you do. Aren't they spending the holidays together already anyway....while you wait on a bus." With a smirk, he headed back inside.

Nadine ran after him and caught him just inside the doors. "Nikolas isn't into Liz."

"Sure he's not. A hot chick who he has a deep emotional bond with. Why would he be?"

"Have you heard something?"

"I heard she doesn't ride the bus to and from work."

Nadine glared at him. "Nikolas would buy me a car in a New York minute...probably...if I asked him to but I won't because I am a very independent woman, just like the song. That's me. A hard working, early to bed, early to rise farm girl and I can fend for myself, even in nippy weather." She suddenly smiled widely at him.

Matt hated how much he liked her smiled.

Nadine added "But thank you for your concern...Matt. Merry Christmas!" She kissed his cheek and then darted away, gave him a little wave and headed outside.

He walked to the doors. They slid open. He yelled out "Fine! I will give you a ride! Don't beg."

Nadine came walking back inside with a huge grin on her face. "Page me when your shift is over. I need some hot chocolate. Do you know its twenty below out there? Close the door, would you?"

He watched her walk toward the cafeteria, never taking his eyes off her until an ambulance roared up to the doors and rushed a patient inside, nearly knocking him over in the process. Matt had no clue what it was about Nadine that got to him. She was not supermodel hot- and he should know because he looked at plenty of supermodels in magazines. She wasn't easy to get into bed. She didn't laugh at all his jokes or tell him how hot he was. She was not his type at all.

Why is this chick, he asked himself, always on my mind then? And what in the hell made me say I'd give her a ride tonight? I must be going soft or something.

XXXXXXXXX

"Just get in the car, Nadine." Matt tried to clear the windshield.

"I can help you."

"You don't even have gloves on. "

"Aren't you a sweetheart for noticing. Kelly is so wrong about you."

He raised an eyebrow and impatiently scraped the ice off the windshield, trying to ignore how adoringly Nadine was looking at him.

She went on "She says you're a jackass with an attitude problem but I think you're as sweet as molasses underneath your crusty exterior. Sorta like a crab. Hard on the outside, soft on the inside. That's you. Matt the cr...crab mmmm....man."

"Good for me. Now get in the car, damn it! Your teeth are chattering!"

"Okay, okay. You don't have to swear."

Nadine climbed into the car. Snow kept pelting Matt as he finished clearing the windshield. Finally he got behind the driver's seat. He let out a loud sigh.

"We will be lucky to make it home alive in this snowstorm," Matt said.

"Oh, I'm not going home. I'm going to visit Jolene at the long term care facility."

He gave her a long look. "Do I even want to know how far away that is?"

"I can always take the bus, if its an inconvenience to you. Of course I will have to transfer twice and wait at the shelter on Main for forty minutes until the cross town makes it way back from the mall."

"Look, I think you better just put off seeing your sister till this storm passes."

"But-"

"Its not gonna happen, Nadine. Okay? Let it go."

"Now you listen to me, Dr. Thinks He Knows It All. It is going to happen. With or without your help. Because it is Christmas Eve and on Christmas Eve Aunt Raylene always baked cookies and read Twas the Night Before Christmas to us. Now I might not have cookies and Aunt Raylene may be back on the farm but my sister is hearing that poem tonight so help me Elvis."

"Elvis?"

"I don't take the Lord's name in vain."

He put on his seatbelt and started to back out. "If you get us killed with this harebrained scheme of yours..."

"To see my family on Christmas is not a scheme."

"Hmph. Yeah, well, you do scheme plenty so who knows. Maybe there is a doctor at the long term care facility that you've started to stalk and I'm just the pasty who's driving you there to spy on him."

"Don't be mean."

He sighed.

She turned on the radio, found Christmas songs and started singing, all the way smiling at him, as he crept through the near deserted streets, doing his best not to slide all over the roads and get them both killed.

XXXXXXXX

Matt hung out in the hallway way, leaning against the wall, while Nadine talked to Jolene. He couldn't help but see how gentle and loving she was toward her sister. Matt had never met a woman with a bigger heart than her.

He watched as Nadine put lotion on her sister's hands, then brushed her hair, read the story, talked about Aunt Raylene, some cow in a parade and a million other weird things, then finally kissed Jolene's cheek and walked out of the room.

"All done," Nadine said brightly. As they walked back to the car she said "I hope I haven't kept you from visiting Patrick tonight."

"Why would I do that?"

"Why wouldn't you? He's your brother after all."

"In only a technical way."

"I know Patrick is not the most stand up guy-"

"What?"

"He is sort of a w-h-o-r-e, if you want to know the truth. Or he used to be, so I've heard. Leyla was one of the many, and I do mean many, MANY.."

"I get it."

"Many women he got to know in the biblical sense but I think he has really grown since then and either way we can not pick our siblings, can we? We can only love them despite their faults, right?"

"I guess so. Right."

"Good."

They took the elevator down stairs, riding down in silence. He couldn't help sneaking glances at her. There was something quietly beautiful about Nadine. Once he starting looking at her, he often found that his mind wandered and he forgot everything else that was going on around him but her.

The elevator doors slid open and she walked off. Looking over her shoulder at him, as he stood there rooted in place, her blue eyes locked on him.

So pretty. Too damn pretty and sweet to belong to the Prince, Matt thought. Nikolas probably didn't even appreciate what he had in her.

Nadine said "We will stop and get a coffee cake on the way. Do you think there are still any stores left open?"

"Hold on. On the way to where?" Matt walked off the elevator, shaking his head to clear it of all his thoughts about her. "And I warn you, do not say Aunt Raylene's house because if you want to go over the bridge and through the wood's on Nadine's Wild Christmas Eve Adventure, you can count me out."

"Not to Aunt Raylene's. She's visiting cousin Bo anyway. Plus haven't you noticed the weather? Its a snow storm out there."

"About time you finally noticed. I'll bring the car around. You just wait here."

"Okay."

"Okay? No argument?

"Nope. I'm good as gold right now. Happy as a clam. Snug as a bug in a rug."

He nodded and headed for the doors, as she stood in the lobby.

Nadine called after him, as soon as he stepped outside. "I'll just call Patrick and tell him we are on the way."

Matt turned around to find her smiling at him. He didn't have the energy to fight her on it so he just turned back around and got the car.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

"You missed the turn, Matt."

"No, I didn't."

"You sure?"

"Positive."

"Do you have a map in here?" Nadine opened the glove box and some condoms fell out. "Oh! OH! Oh my!"

He grabbed them off her lap and shoved them back in there, then slammed it close. "I don't have a map."

"Who are you dating?"

He ignored her question. "I didn't miss the turn because I refuse to spend my Christmas Eve pretending to love my brother."

"No one said you have to love him. But I do think it is sweet you mentioned it. It shows that your mind is open to the possibility."

"Leave it alone, Nadine. Its none of your business. Just like whatever is in my glove box and whoever is in my bed is none of your business too."

"Well, you don't have to be rude about it."

"Stop being so nosy then. My life is my life and you can't take it over. So just stop. No more being around every corner I turn and no more dragging me into your crazy plots and no more hanging on my every word at work when I am not even talking to you. Its getting old."

He expected her to be upset. Maybe even cry. But when he snuck a glance at her she was smiling widely.

"You like me."

"What?" he asked, doing his best to make his face blank but over exaggerating too much to pull it off. He repeated, for good measure, "What? Nadine, I don't have a clue where you get this stuff."

"I'm not taking over your life, Matt. I happen to have a very big and busy life of my own. I almost had a fiancee not even a month back. Though our near engagement was a rather embarrassing misunderstanding, as it turns out. Still the moment I became involved with a bonefide Prince, I stopped stalking you. But since you seem so all fired up about me....and you imagine I am still feeling the way about you that I may have previously felt before my storybook romance with Nikolas then it must be because you....like...me. You like me!"

He stopped at a red light and stared at her. "Stop staying that."

"Why? Its true. You like me. Matt Hunter, brooding formerly bearded doctor, likes little ole me."

The light changed to green but he still sat there. "Like is not the right word."

She gulped. "Love?"

"Annoyed would be closer."

Her face fell. She climbed out of the car as he yelled her name after her. A car pulled up and honked at him. He got out of his car, yelled at the other driver to go around, and the followed Nadine down the sidewalk. "What are you doing now? There are no stores open to buy coffee cake. Nadine...Nadine...slow down."

"Go to Hades!"

He caught up to her, grabbed her arm, gently, and spun her around. On the slippery sidewalk, his feet slid out from under him and they fell to the ground, landing in a pile of snow on the grass, that cushioned their fall. She lay on top of him. "Are you all right?" she asked worriedly.

"Uh...yeah...it stings a little but I'll live."

Nadine scurried off him and helped him to his feet. "Careful."

She clung to his arm as they both tried to keep from falling down again as they stepped back on the sidewalk and then headed to the car. Matt asked "Where in the hell did you think you were going?"

"Away from you. But I see I won't make it two feet in this storm so maybe I should just call a cab. I wouldn't want to force you to spend another minute with me since all I do is annoy you. Why does that not surprise me? I chased Nikolas away by annoying him too." She pulled out her cell.

Matt's hand closed over hers, so she couldn't make the call.

Standing there in the freezing cold, with snow falling down in huge chunks, the car door open and Christmas music drifting out, he bent and kissed her. Her eyes lit up as she realized what he was about to do. He smiled against her lips as she made this happy surprised sound.

"But I thought I only annoy you?"

"I thought you were dating a Prince."

"That kind of fell apart, due to my excessive jealousy, scheming and an incident at The Metro Court that made Carly ban me from ever going back. You steal one maid's outfit and plant a bug in an office that your good friend The Jackal gave you and all of a sudden, heaven to Betsy, the word felony is being tossed around and a very frightening hitman is giving you dirty looks."

"Come on. In the car. You're lips are turning a bluish color."

She got in and he closed the door. A minute later he was sitting next to her. He turned and looked at her. "Five minutes at Patrick's. That's it. In and out."

She smiled. "Deal."

**THE END**


	23. Milo and Leyla

The Christmas One Shot Series

Milo Giambetti and Leyla Mir

****

The Christmas Scheme

"I think I'll have a vanilla bean mocha latte grande." Nadine said as they stood in front of the counter at the coffee house. "What about you, Leyla?"

"A tray full of tequila shooters."

Nadine rolled her eyes.

Leyla said "Seriously, coffee is not going to be enough to help me right now. Not with my mother on her way here to spend nearly two weeks with me."

"What I wouldn't do to spend two whole weeks with Aunt Raylene."

"Guilt. My mother's forte. What are you doing? Warming me up for her?"

"I'm sure its going to be fun as monkeys jumping on a bed to catch up with your mama."

"Do all these cute little monkeys constantly _say When are you going to get married_? because if not then I assure you they bear no resemblance to my mother. I just don't know how I am going to pull this visit off. If she gave me more warning but calling last night-"

From behind them, they heard a thick London accent ask "And why would you need more warning, darling? Are you trying to hide something from me?"

Leyla froze while Nadine whipped around, with a smile on her face. "Mama Mir! I've heard so much about you and I'm sure you've heard plenty of wild stories about me but those streetwalking charges were dropped and the stalking was really just a misunderstanding. The ones about me dating a Prince, well those....all true! I know! Its like a fairytale, right?"

"You must be Nadine."

"Bingo! You're as quick as a whip."

Giving Nadine a thin smile, Mrs. Mir said "Leyla, turn around a give your mother a proper hello."

Leyla slowly turned around. "Mother. You've arrived early."

"I left you a message that I switched to an earlier flight. I wasn't pleased to see you didn't pick me up. I had to take a dreadful little cab here. Since I couldn't get into that shoebox you call home, and you wouldn't answer your phone, I stopped by here to get some refreshments while I waited for you to remember about me and fit me into your schedule."

"My cell must be dead," Leyla said.

"Well that's not very responsible, is it?"

"No, mother, I suppose not. Can I offer you a drink?"

After they ordered, paid for their drinks and sat down at a table, Mrs, Mir asked Leyla "So, this evening, I've already called ahead and made reservations for us to dine at The Metro Court with your fiancee."

Nadine choked on her drink. "Sorry! Went down the wrong way." She patted at her face with napkins while shooting Leyla confused looks.

"Careful, dear." Mrs. Mir went on, looking at Leyla again "You've been so secret about him. I don't see why you insist on keeping me in the dark about the man who is soon to be my son-in-law."

"Mother, I explained to you, its not that serious. That's why I don't want to talk about him. Its casual."

"You are too old to be dating casually. You need to become serious about your future before every decent man is off the market. Do you want to become like your cousin? Forty four, dried up and off running around the world wasting all her good years alone?"

"She's a very successful photojournalist," Leyla said. "I hardly think that is wasting her life."

"Is she married? Has she given my brother a grandchild? Enough said. So, tonight then, I meet your man."

"That isn't possible."

"And why not?"

"He's busy. Working."

"Leyla, there isn't really a man at all, is there? This is like when you brought that high schooler to the wedding, isn't it?"

"Mr. Jackal is not in high school!" Leyla cried, growing flustered.

"I knew this was just a ruse to lull me into believing you were actually starting to get your life together. When will you ever learn, child? Maybe you should move home so I can help you organize your life, meet some nice doctors, dress....like you have some kind of style and upbringing...before its too late for you. The clock is ticking, you know. And obviously you are content to spend your youth playing childish games, making up boyfriends and lying about your plans and prospects. Wait until your father hears you've done this to me again. I thought the last time you pretended to have a doctor as a date was the end of your foolishness?"

"Well maybe," Leyla said "if you didn't make me feel so worthless for not being involved with someone then I could be honest with you more often."

Mrs. Mir shot her daughter a withering look.

Nadine popped out of her seat, as Milo and Max walked in. "Oh, hello there, boys! You're late. But I'm sure that being _lawyers _must keep your schedule jam packed. Like Aunt Raylene always said "A good man works as hard as the day is long!" No mind, you showed up in time to meet, Mrs. Mir. She surprised us by popping in for a coffee. Isn't that great?! Mrs. Mir, say hello to Leyla's boyfriend and his brother."

Leyla gasped. Milo and Max looked at each other in shock. They both pointed to themselves, with identical raised eyebrows.

"Uh," Max cleared his throat.

Milo looked over his shoulder and then back. "Um....hello?"

Mrs. Mir smiled "A lawyer? Well, well, well, Leyla why didn't you say so in the first place?"

"Mother.."

Nadine hurried around the table. She placed a hand on Milo's arm. "Isn't he handsome too? Never been married, no baby mamas, no sneaking off into the hayloft with the loosest girl or guy around either. He's grade A, all American, prime man." She slapped his ass. Milo startled and then blushed deeply.

"Uh," Max said "right. Well, very nice to meet you, ma'am, but I have a business meeting with a....very important client...and the law waits for no man or woman or....yeah....so good day."

"Good day, Mr...." Mrs. Mir started, holding out her hand.

Max took it and smiled "Giambetti. You have a lovely afternoon, ma'am, getting to know my brother here. He's just crazy about your girl." With a smile, Max walked off, as Milo shot him a panicked look.

Leyla stood up. "Hold on. I'm sorry," she looked at Milo "there seems to be a misunderstanding."

Mrs. Mir looked at Leyla sternly. "Let me guess, this man is really the prince that your friend Nadine here is dating and she is asking him to pretend to be your boyfriend so I will be satisfied you haven't been lying to me. Am I close?" She looked at all there stunned and guilty faces. "This is really typical of you, Leyla. I don't know when you are going to mature. I'm really so disappointed in you."

Milo swallowed several times and then said "Ma'am, I'm no prince. I'm just a bodyguard....working my way through law school. But, I assure you, I am very taken with your daughter."

Leyla's eyes were wide as she looked at Milo. He gave her a shy smile back.

"Let me tell you, Mrs. Mir," Nadine said "Milo here is a catch, too. He has the woman folk knocking over each other to get to him. Leyla was lucky to snag him when she did. If not for me being crazy about my Prince, I would have grabbed him for myself. I mean look at his cute smile and his abs....I'm thinking he has a twelve pack instead of six!"

"Nadine, stop," Leyla said. "Really....this is ridiculous. Mother.."

"Yes?"

"I don't see why you have to be so judgmental!"

"Well if you think that maybe I should just leave."

"Maybe you should."

"And miss the chance to get to know your boyfriend, I don't think so, missy. So, Mr. Giambetti, I suppose she didn't even tell you I was coming for a visit, did she?"

"Uh...sure. Sure. I heard all about you. Leyla and I," Milo said "are....very...uh...glad you could...uh...visit us for the holidays."

Leyla stood up. "Mother, please, lets just go home and talk about this in private. Its not right for you to interrogate my friends in public like this."

"Darling, I'm only trying to learn about the life my daughter is leading here in Port Charles. Ever since your father and I moved back to London you've been on my mind constantly. I only meddle because I care, you know that. Now, take me to your apartment so I can settle in. Mr. Giambetti, I'll see you tonight at eight for dinner. Its been lovely meeting you. I look forward to hearing about your schooling and how close you are to passing the bar, and of course, all about how you and Leyla met." She looked at Nadine. "Lovely meeting you, too, dear."

With that Mrs. Mir walked out of the coffee house. Nadine smiled "Ha! That worked perfectly. No thank you necessary."

"Nadine!" Leyla cried "How could you do that?" Looking at Milo she said "I'm so sorry. I'll tell her the truth. This is mortifying."

"Uh...well....she seems like she might take it...sorta...bad. Maybe I better just show up tonight."

"No, really, I can't ask that," Leyla said.

"You so have to show up!" Nadine cried "Or else she will go twenty shades of crazy on all of us."

The coffee shop door opened again "Leyla! How long do you plan to leave me standing out here, holding my suitcase, in the freezing cold?"

Milo walked over and took her suitcase. "Here let me carry that for you, ma'am."

Leyla sighed and walked outside. "The car is this way, mother."

Once Mrs. Mir was inside the car, and her suitcase was in the trunk, Leyla and Milo stood by the back of the car. She whispered "Really, you do not have to go along with this madness."

"But she'll take it out on you if I don't."

"I can handle her. I can't expect a stranger to bail me out of my lies."

"I'm....Milo. There....we aren't really strangers anymore. Besides, Spinelli has mentioned you and Nadine tons of times to me. Its good to put a name to a face anyway. I'm sure you'd rather have one of the doctors you work with help you out but..."

"No, not at all. I'm just so embarrassed. What will your girlfriend think?"

"Girlfriend?"

"Wife?"

"No...neither. If you want....me to show up tonight, I will. Your call."

Mrs. Mir honked the horn. They looked at her. She was looking back at them. Leyla said "Thank you, yes. I would like that."

Milo nodded.

She gave him a sweet, grateful smile and then ducked into the car.

XXXXXXXX

All through dinner, Milo stuttered out his answers to Mrs. Mir questions while Leyla kept trying to turn the conversation around to anything but their so-called relationship. Finally, to get a moment's peace away from her mother, she asked Milo to dance.

When they were on the dance floor, he said "Sorry. I tripped up a few times there."

"No, no, really. You are doing amazing. I'm so mortified that Nadine drug you into this though and that I am allowing it to continue rather than just set my mother straight."

"She's kinda tough, huh?" Milo smiled at her.

Leyla chuckled. "Yes, very much so. You're so sweet for playing along."

"Not a big deal. A few months back, when my Dad came to town, me and Max tried to pull something like this on him. Got Jason, Carly and Claudia Zacchara, if you can believe it, involved to. It didn't work out so great but maybe your mom isn't as tough as my Dad to fool."

"I should just tell her the truth."

"Well, if not, I can keep helping you out till you do, whatever you want."

She smiled at him. "You are a very good dancer, Milo."

He blushed.

Leyla said "I will make this all up to you. After my mother is safely back to London, I will owe you a huge favor and you need to call it in because I wouldn't feel right otherwise."

"Seriously, I don't mind. I didn't have anything else to do tonight."

"I suppose it is my good luck then that the women in this city are too blind to see what a wonderful man you are."

XXXXXXXXXXX

The days went by, Milo had to spend day after day with Leyla and Mrs. Mir, holding Leyla's hand and playing the adoring boyfriend. Since Mrs. Mir was old fashioned she never expected them to kiss or for Milo to spend the night at Leyla's apartment. She did talk non-stop about babies and marriage and Leyla quitting work to raise a family. By the time they finally put her on a plane home they were exhausted, but bonded for life because of their two weeks of scheming together.

Milo looked at Leyla, as they stood at the airport. "Well, its over."

"I can't believe we survived it. And I don't have to see her again until Easter."

"By then she will have a church booked, I bet."

"Don't worry I'll tell her we ended things on a mutual note. No one to blame. We just went our separate ways."

"All right. I guess that's.....probably...best, you know."

"We wouldn't want to go through all this again....right?"

"You'll probably have a doctor boyfriend by Spring, anyway. That would make her thrilled."

"I don't know. My mother has a soft spot for you now. You were so charming with her. I'll never forget this, Milo. You're such a good man for doing all this for me. I'm sure you are glad this is over though. You spent your whole Christmas holiday on me and my mother."

"I enjoyed it, actually."

"Really?"

They stared at each other for a long moment. Leyla added "Well, thank you. I'll.....miss this, a little bit. Us. We make a good team, don't you think? Even though it was Nadine that started this whole charade and your brother that pushed you into it....still.....we pulled it off. I wouldn't have wanted anyone else to be my pretend boyfriend but you, so thanks, again."

"You're welcome." Milo shifted around nervously. "I guess I should get you home, then." He reached for her head so they could walk out to the parking lot, then jerked back when he realized they no longer had to hold hands constantly.

Leyla smiled and walked in front of him to the car. They rode back to her apartment in silence. He put on her favorite songs to break the silence.

Knowing what songs she liked, what food she enjoyed, the dreams she had for her future, stories about her childhood, her fears and her pain- all learned in whispers that her mother couldn't hear when they would sneak off to the kitchen during all the many family dinners Mrs. Mir had insisted on during her stay, made Milo feel like he knew Leyla better than he knew any other woman on earth. Twelve days during Christmas spent pretending to be in love and he had really fallen for her...but now it was over.

He walked her to the door of her apartment. She asked "Would you like to come in for coffee?"

He looked at his watch. "I would but...Sonny is expecting me."

"Oh."

"So....I should go."

"Thank you again, Milo."

"Really, no more thanking me. This is the most fun I've had in years."

"Fun?" she laughed, then her smile slid away and she whispered "Me too."

"Bye, Leyla."

"Good bye."

Her eyes searched his. He stared at her for a long moment and then walked around her, heading for the elevator, but suddenly he spun back around, pulled her into his arms and kissed her. If he didn't do it quickly, he knew he would never do it at all, and he had to kiss her. Just once...before she moved on to someone she really loved.

His lips molded to hers, as his heart beat hard in his chest. She was amazingly beautiful in his eyes but also incredibly fragile and unsure. She didn't even believe that any man would want her. Milo knew she couldn't be more wrong and one day some man would come along and steal her heart.

He doubted it would be him but he wanted her to know that she was someone he would forever remember and hold her in his heart. She was more than worthy of love.

Milo slowly broke their kiss, while still holding her, he whispered "A proper good bye."

Her eyes widened "Oh....I was hoping that....oh, forget it."

"What?"

"I was hoping that meant you didn't want to say good bye at all."

He was left speechless for a moment. He stepped back from her. Her eyes were wide and unsure. Leyla added "I've really enjoyed getting to know you, Milo, and just because my mother is gone now....does that mean we have to stop being.....friends?"

"Friends? No....we can be friends."

"I know I've taken up so much of your time already. Don't feel like you have to continue to take pity on me."

"Did that.....seem like a pity kiss?"

"No but..."

"Good," he said "because it wasn't."

She smiled widely. "Oh....good then."

He smiled. "There is a party at The Metro Court every year for New Year's Eve, would you....how about...a real date, Miss Mir?"

"I would love a real date with you."

"_You would_? I mean....great! Good, uh...I mean....I'll pick you up at seven on New Year's Eve."

"See you at seven, Milo." She reached out and brushed her thumb over his bottom lip. "Lipstick."

He blushed. "Thank you."

"Sonny is waiting, right?"

"Yeah."

"Well, good bye....for now, then."

Milo pulled her close to him again. "Let him wait," and then his lips came down on hers.

Years later, Nadine would tell her kids about the Christmas scheme that brought together Aunt Leyla and Uncle Milo, the same way she would tell them about all the schemes that brought together her and their father. But that's a whole other story.....

THE END


	24. Mac and Kate

The Christmas Series

This story is about Kate Howard and Malcolm Scorpio.

****

Time Would Heal All Hearts

"You tell her," Mac said as he sat next to his wife on the couch "she has three more minutes to get home or else I'm calling down to the station and putting out an APB."

"Victoria Georgianna Scorpio, did you hear what your father said? Three minutes. That's right. I'm looking at the clock right now....don't speed. Just get home! Do you know what my mother would have done to me if I came sneaking in at 2:27 in the morning when I was in Sacred Heart?.....Don't back talk me young lady. You have two minutes now." Kate hung up the phone. "Well you know all we just did was encourage her to break the speed limit worse than she already does. I swear that child will turn my hair white before she leaves for Sarah Lawrence next fall."

"Well my hair is already white, honey, so join the club. You know I'm way too old to be sitting up with my gun waiting to scare some boy who brings home one of my girls after curfew. How did I ever let you talk me into having another kid at that age?"

Kate smiled at him "It must have been love, Commish."

"Must have been."

Looking back on in all now, it seems like a miracle they managed to find each other that snowy Christmas night twenty years ago, two lonely people who swore they were done with love and all the pain it brought along with it.

But love was not done with them yet.

Out of the ashes of their tattered, miserable little lives their love rose like a phoenix. For Mac, it was his last grab at hope. For Kate, it was her last chance to believe in someone, something bigger than herself and the insular little fashion world of flashing lights and plastic people that she had made her God.

He still couldn't believe that Kate Howard, someone he saw on TV long before she ever came to Port Charles, would see him as anything more than a small town joke of a cop.

She couldn't believe he wouldn't hold her past against her. Blame her for loving a mobster who she swore was a good man who could offer her a good life. Who she protected and fought the world over, who she tried to change with all her might before realizing it was not Sonny who needed to change. It was her.

Loving Sonny had been like living in a live action gangster movie. Bigger than life. It was the same kind of thrill as running Couture. A different genre of movie with different drama but the same visceral rush of being a player, being known, living fast and hard and never slowing down.

For so long, Kate loved and hated that life with equal measure.

It was not until the day she stood in a church in her wedding dress, playing out the final scene that was supposed to fade to happily ever after but instead dissolved into blood and screaming, that she realized she was acting a part more than living a life.

She didn't even feel real inside. She kept reaching and reaching for real but she always came up short until the day she ended up sitting alone at the bar at The Cosmopolitan Hotel on Christmas day, right next to a man who was just as lonely and broken as her.

XXXXXXXXXX

December 2008

__

"A martini. Dry. Hold the olives, please," Kate said as she sank onto the bar stool.

She looked impeccable, as usual, but she felt like she had been ran over by a train. Spending the holidays completely alone had sapped all her energy. Thinking about Sonny sleeping with Claudia made her sick. Thinking about how Olivia hated her for spilling her secret about Dante left Kate guilt ridden. But most of all she was just lonely and still unwilling to go back to Bensonhurst and the only people left on earth who might care about how she was feeling that night.

Instead she ate dinner alone at her desk, take out from a Chinese restaurant, and when her work ran out she came to this bar to drink until she felt brave enough to go home to her empty mansion. Or drunk enough to not care anymore that she was all alone.

Sitting a few bar stools away, Kate noticed, was the commissioner of police. She had, unfortunately, been a guest in his lock up a time or two because of her less than stellar driving skills. And, of course, he came around every once in a while to question Sonny about the latest murder of the month.

"Another beer for me, Jimmy."

Kate smiled slightly. "On a first name basis with the bartender? You must come here even more than I do."

"Just here lately."

"Me too. Its amazing we haven't tripped over each other. Is this your usual time?"

"Nah. It varies. My work doesn't exactly have regular hours."

"Of course." Having run out of things to say, and feeling foolish for bothering him, Kate focused on her drink once more.

Mac cleared his throat. "Uh...we are still working on your case, Ms. Howard. Just wanted you to know I plan on seeing that the man who shot you is put behind bars. Believe me, the investigation into your shooting is not just another file on my desk. Its horrible the way that went down. We'll get the guy. Its just hard when people like Corinthos and Morgan lawyer up and refuse to share what's really going on with me."

"I understand. It can't be easy to do your job. I'm trying to put it all behind me actually. Sonny, that night, his association to the criminal element in this town, all of it. I would have moved away by now," if I had anywhere to go that is, she added silently "but Crimson's base of operations in here so..."

"Well Maxie is glad you're staying. She was worried about losing her job there for a while."

"She shouldn't worry. She's my best new hire in years. I'm grooming her for big things."

Mac smiled slightly as his eyes got misty. He looked away. His voice was thick when he said "Great," then he chugged down his beer.

"I'm sorry. Did I say something wrong? Do you not approve of Maxie's career aspirations? Believe me I told her to go to college first but she's way too ambitious to spend four years learning about the world when she could be taking it by the throat instead."

"No, no. Um....its not that. I'm happy she's getting somewhere with her career." He looked at Kate again. "It just made me think about my other daughter. She had a bright future ahead of her too."

"Oh! I'm so sorry. Maxie did mention.....last week was one year since Georgie...passed away, wasn't it? I really am terribly sorry to have reminded you."

"Don't worry about it. You didn't remind me. I can't forget it even if I tried. I actually would like to get it off my mind for five full minutes when I'm not working...but..."

With a sad smile, she asked softly "Change of subject then?"

"All right. Well...did the snowstorm keep you from flying home to see your family this year? Or was it work that forced you to stay in town?"

"Neither. Actually, I am not that close to my family. Its almost like...I don't have one at all. There's just me. But that's fine. It makes my Christmas list nice and short."

He chuckled. "Well you should have said something....you could have had half of mine and bought Maxie all the stuff I can't afford. A thousand dollar cell phone? On my salary?"

Kate let out a short laugh, then blushed slightly. She pulled a phone from her purse. "You mean like this one?"

"Is it worth the money?"

"Honestly, I can't use half the features it has. Maybe I should get Maxie's boyfriend to find me one more user friendly."

"Boyfriend? You mean Spinelli, huh? Do you know something I don't know about them?"

"No, no, oh, um...maybe he isn't her boyfriend. I only assumed. I really do stick my foot in it often, don't I?"

"No more than I do. I shouldn't have tried to grill you. Comes with the job, I guess. Let me make it up to you and buy the next round."

"You don't have to."

"I want to."

Not even an hour later they found themselves the only two people in the bar, minutes before it was about to shut down. In the quiet of the room the music that was playing over the sound system was suddenly a lot more clear than it had been with other diners around.

(_I'm not a child but my heart still can dream._.) ( Natalie Cole version)

So here's my lifelong wish.  
My grown-up Christmas list.

Not for myself but for a world in need.

No more lives torn apart.  
That wars would never start.  
And time would heal all hearts.

Every man would have a friend.  
That right would always win.  
And love would never end.

This is my grown-up Christmas list

__

Kate hummed softly to it. "This is my favorite holiday song. Its really beautiful, don't you think, Commissioner?"

"Yeah. It was one of Georgie's favorites too."

"Oh."

"Don't feel bad for bringing it up. Its a great song. In fact.....what do you say to a dance?"

"Really? No...." She looked around. "I think they are closing."

"The song is almost over anyway. Just a quick one."

He stood up and soon she was in his arms. They gently swayed to the music, both nervous but also aware of being so close to each other. Their eyes met.

And he smiled.

That was all it took for Kate to hope she might be able to spend another evening as lovely as the hour she had just spent with him, and being able to smile, in the middle of all his pain and heartbreak, made Mac believe that maybe it worth trying one more time to make his life have more than just family and his job filling up his hours.

It had been a long time since a woman made his heart speed up. Way too long. He really hadn't been living at all.

"You want to get dinner some time, Ms. Howard?"

"You can call me Kate, Commish."

(No more lives torn apart.  
That wars would never start.  
And time would heal all hearts.

Every man would have a friend.  
That right would always win.  
And love would never end.

This is my grown-up Christmas list.) ( Natalie Cole version)

__

THE END

Thanks for reading my Christmas stories. They were all written for Soap Fan Fiction to help our members get in the holiday spirit. Hope you and yours had a wonderful holiday season this year.

Sara


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